Triple Dangan Ronpa! Class Eighty's New School Life of Mutual Killing
by Rui Shimizu
Summary: Rin Nakauchi never had any real talents, so it's a bit of a shock that Rin's been invited to the new Hope's Peak Magnet School. But, of course, Rin's never been that lucky, either. Now Rin and 15 other Super High School Level Students have to find their way out of Hope's Peak and back to their post-despair world, but can they all make it out before Hanneko's plan takes effect?
1. Chapter One: Introductions

Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

-Charlie Chaplin

Something was odd. I had received an invitation to attend the Hope's Peak Magnet School, the most elite school in the country. I remember how I used to walk past it on my way to elementary school wishing I would one day have enough of any kind of talent to be among those elite.

Ha! Recently all I do is stay home, watch tv, and read mystery novels. Apparently staying at home and wasting my life away is all that I'm good at doing. I'm not even sure I'm still registered with my school. Though I guess I am, since I somehow managed to have my name placed in the lottery for the "average" high school students that weren't singled out as the most talented in their fields.

Anyway, I'm getting depressed just thinking about all this. I should probably think about what the hell is actually going on. Fifteen elite students (and me) were gathered in the gymnasium of what I guess is Hope's Peak, since the school symbol was painted on the floor. While we all sat there confused and trying to figure out who everyone was and why they looked so familiar, sudden strange music started playing. A half-white, half blue cat plush jumped up and sat down on the podium on the stage.

"Hellooooo, my Super High School Level Subjects! Welcome to Hope's Peak Magnet School, which has a history of housing the most elite students and preparing them for years of success in their respective fields! I'm your principal, Hanneko, and unfortunately, you hapless bastards probably won't even last a year in this academy!"

Uh... What? I think everyone in the gym could agree that this was the weirdest thing to happen today. Even me, who had awoken less than half an hour ago behind the stage in the gym. After I woke up, I started freaking out because I was somehow supposed to be at the auditorium at 8:00 for opening ceremonies, but I guess the venue was changed to the gym, since I've found everyone here. Everyone seemed scared and confused for the most part, but as time passed, they all mellowed out and started socializing. That is, until, the cat plush showed up, leaving us at this point in the story.

"What? How are YOU our principal? You're very obviously some weird feline animatronic device," said one girl. She had long, black hair and large brown eyes, as well as well-defined facial features and ridiculously long legs. Needless to say, she was kinda beautiful. But her voice was commanding, scary, and kinda foreign. Maybe South American.

"Oh ho ho ho, but I am. I've been placed in charge, as a sort of overseer for the forecoming events," said Hanneko.

"Events? Like athletic events?" The question came from a slim, yet muscular male. He had orange hair that stopped at his neck and purple eyes. He seems somewhat athletic, and I caught myself wondering what sport he played.

"Uh, no," said Hanneko. "Like Battle Royale meets Detective Conan type events!"

"Battle Royale? You mean like the movie?" That came from a boy with short red hair and black eyes. He has a serious look to his face. He kinda reminded me of an anime character from an old semi-popular show. Well, a male version of that character.

"Oh em gee, I love that movie! It's one of my favorite older movies," said a skinny blonde girl. She had long, somewhat unruly blonde hair and round green eyes. She was loud and seemed like the kind of person I would hate.

"Anyway, back to the matter at hand. As many of you may know, Hope's Peak stayed closed for approximately ten years. Do you pampered brats know why?" Jeez, Hanneko didn't need to insult so much. But I do remember hearing rumors that a huge incident that pretty much tore the school apart from the inside had occurred. Some say it was linked to the destruction of civilization, but that was a while before most of us were born. By the time I was born, the world was showing signs of becoming safer and more trusting. People were nicer, according to my parents. In fact, there hasn't been a war in a decade in a half. Of course, there was still crime, but it was at all-time lows in most countries. I almost wouldn't believe it happened, but plenty of ruins around the area suggested otherwise. Apparently, they were everywhere.

"Ugh, not this conspiracy bullshit again," said a tall guy with blue hair and glasses. He had an air of pretentiousness about him.

"Yes, it's just that conspiracy bullshit! Before you bastards were born, this school held 15 students hostage and forced them all to kill each other. The sole purpose of this event was to plunge the world into despair! What started in these metaphorical halls extended into worldwide chaos! So, what does that have to do with you bastards, you ask? Well, we are going to recreate all of that!" The cat's expression stayed mostly the same, but its voice became excited.

"So, what are you saying?!" The blonde girl said. Her voice went from excited to scared.

"..." The cat didn't respond. "Eh, I'll come back and tell you in an hour. I feel kinda tired. Until then, feel free to socialize in here." Hanneko then leapt off the top of the podium and crawled behind the stage.

What. The. Actual. Fuck. The room was quiet for a moment.

"So... Maybe we should do as he says? I mean, we are going to be classmates," said a small boy with wavy purple hair. He seemed scared.

"Weren't you listening?! All that he was saying was leading up to us having to murder each other!" This voice came from a pale girl with blonde, curled hair and a frilly sweet-lolita getup.

"Uh, we don't actually know that. For all we know, that could have just been leading up to us having to solve the mystery of why the school closed, or a sort of 'reenacting' of what he claims to have happened," said a girl with long, white hair and red eyes. She looked somewhat familiar, but all I could think about was some government stuff. She must have something to do with that.

"True. Anyway, what are the chances of it even leading to that? We should all try to talk with everyone." This came from a black girl with shoulder-length silver hair. She was dressed somewhat officially.

"Yay! Neko-chan gets to make more friends!" The blonde girl again. She doesn't seem like she's worried at all about what may soon happen.

With that, each student started conversing as if that strange opening ceremony didn't happen. I mostly sat and watched, going unnoticed, like normal. Surprisingly, a girl walked towards me and stared at me. She had black hair that stopped about halfway down her back and was kept in a ponytail.

"Uh... Hi?" I wondered why she stared.

"Hi! My name's Nezumi Karafuto. I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive, but what's your name?"

That's not particularly intrusive, is it? "I'm Rin Nakauchi," I say. She seems a bit distraught.

"Dang it! I couldn't tell if you were a boy or a girl. I thought your name would give me a hint, but 'Rin' is a pretty unisex name, isn't it?" Wow. I've never run into this kind of question before. Then again, I don't get out much. I think I'm going to mess with this girl a bit.

"Sorry, even I don't know what my gender is. I just wish there was some way I could check." The look on her face is priceless.

"Oh, come on! You have to know!" I'm very clearly enjoying this, and her irritated face is only making this funnier.

"Okay," she said decisively. "Can you tell me what your Super High School Level talent is, then?" Nezumi looked eager, like she somehow would get a hint from that. Actually, now that I think about it, what is my Super High School Level talent? I have no talents...

"I... I actually don't know. I don't have any talents, I just stay at home and watch tv all the time." She's even more upset.

"Aw, come on! Wait, are you the lottery student? That would explain it," she said. "Oh, well, you can become the Super High School Level Socializer!" She then grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the crowd.

"Hey, what are you-"

"Ack! Who bumped into me?!" Oops. I accidentally hit the lolita girl.

"Oh, sorry, that was me," I told her. She didn't seem any happier with this closure.

"Well, watch it! This wig slips easily, and the fabric on this dress stains even more easily," she told me. That was kinda insulting. Do I really look that dirty?

"Oh, he/she didn't mean it! It was my fault for pulling him/her." Great. Mouse girl is sticking up for me now.

"He/she?" I recognized the voice as belonging to the pretentious glasses guy (sound familiar?). "You know you can use just one, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't know if Rin's a boy or girl," said Nezumi, sounding slightly upset.

"Hm... Now that I've got a good look at you, what are you? You look slightly androgynous." Great. Well, I guess it's mostly my fault, since more than one person can't tell.

"Well, whatever you are, watch it next time! I have a fondness for this dress, and I'd be very upset if I had to spend tonight detangling this wig," said the lolita girl. What talent could she possibly have?

"Hey, can I ask you guys someth-"

"You probably want to know our names and talents, don't you?" Interrupted again. By Glasses guy this time. "Don't worry, everyone's been asking everyone. I'm Tougo Hanai, the Super High School Level Interpreter," he said proudly. "I'm fluent in almost forty languages, and I like to translate popular young adult novels into different languages." Wow, that's actually pretty cool. I only really know Japanese and some words in English, so I'm impressed.

The lolita went next. "I'm Alice Darlington, the Super High School Level Lolita. I own my own lolita fashion brand, and am a pretty popular fashion icon in Japan." Well, that would explain why she has some familiarity to her appearance. I've seen a couple of her pictures in magazines, but I never knew her name. Speaking of which, that can't be her actual name. I know I said she was blonde, but that was revealed to be just a wig, and she has a very Oriental face. There's no way.

"Oh, I never told you my talent," Nezumi said to me. She decided to address the others as well. "I'm Nezumi Karafuto, the Super High School Level Artist," she said enthusiastically. Something was odd about how she said it, though... Almost as if it didn't fit for her to say it...

"Well, what are you?" I'm not entirely sure if Alice realized how rude she kinda sounded.

"I... I don't have a talent. I'm the lottery student," I said. Glasses looked somewhat disappointed.

"Well, I'm not really interested in making friends with someone without a talent. Are you sure there's nothing you can do?" Okay, now she must realize she's being rude.

"I'm good at staying in my house. Or, I was," I say somewhat sarcastically.

"Oh, really? Then you can be the Super High School Level Hikikomori!" Okay, I'm about done talking to this kid.

"Alice, I don't think you should be so mean," said Nezumi. Okay, is sticking up for the no-talent going to be her thing?

"I'm not being mean. If I were mean, I would say that Rin smells and has gross skin and a horrible fashion sense, but I'm not." Alice turned to me. "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will want to be your friend!" She patted my shoulder and left, confidence and sophistication in her walk.

"Well, that looked awkward," said the black girl, expressing exactly what I was feeling. "Hi, nice to meet ya, Jay Caraway at your service, the Super High School Level Businesswoman." She extended her hand to me. She really was all-business. It was somewhat intimidating.

I took her hand and shook it. "I'm Rin Nakauchi, the lottery student."

"Lottery? Like you won one to come here? I thought they meticulously evaluated students to invite to the school," she said. She probably didn't know much about the school's selection process. She must have come directly from the Western Hemisphere.

"Rin's the Super High School Hikikomori!" I'm not sure if Nezumi remembers that Alice said that as a joke...

"Hiki-wha?" Oh, right. She's not Japanese.

"It's a person that mainly stays inside his or her house and doesn't interact socially," explained Tougo.

"Oh. Well, you seem like a social person! You had the most people around you a while ago," Jay said. Her businesswoman persona seems to have melted away a bit. Really, I just want to get this over with. The sooner I find out about these people, the easier it'll be to observe.

"Yeah, you look confident to say that you don't get out much," said yet another new voice. A girl with dark green hair and yellow eyes walked over. "I'm Ying Yanmei, the Super High School Level Survivalist! You might have heard of me," she said confidently. She was right. I read her book a while ago about how she was stranded in a Japanese forest for two months with no food or shelter. She was the only member of her family to survive, and she became pretty popular for variety show hosts.

"Oh my gosh, I LOVED your book! It was so sad! I've been wanting to meet you!" God damn it, it's the blonde chick with the unruly hair. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Neko-chan Kawaii!" She can't be serious. That sounds like the nickname for an American anime enthusiast.

"I believe the term you're thinking is 'weeaboo,'" whispered Tougo. "If you're wondering how I knew, we're probably not the only ones thinking it." I was wondering how he knew, and that was what I was thinking. This guy might be dangerous.

"Uh... Nice to meet you, Kawai-san," said Ying slightly hesitantly.

"You guys can call me Neko-chan!" Another one with a fake name. This could get annoying.

"Okay, Neko-san-" began Nezumi, but she was cut off.

"It's Neko-chan. Neko-chan Kawaii." I swear to God.

"Uh... Sorry. Pleased to meet you! I'm Nezumi Karafuto, the Super High School Level Artist. What's your talent?"

"Hm... Are you sure you're an artist? You don't really look like one. But I digress. I'm the Super High School Level Fangirl!" Okay, now I'm just completely done.

"While it sounds like she's just being stupid, being a fan really is her talent. She's used her online presence to help idols she loves become number one. Heck, she even managed to help one obscure band become number one on the charts," explained the commandingly accented female voice from earlier. I turned to see the pretty girl that first questioned Hanneko.

"I'm Irina Esperanza," she said. That didn't tell me enough.

"If you don't mind my asking, what's your Super High School Level talent?" I was curious as to if my guess was correct.

"I'm not entirely sure. I'm a singer, actress, and model. I can't decide on which one is my Super High School Level talent."

"Oh, that's easy," interjected Neko-chan. "You are a Super High School Level Triple Threat!"

"Hm... I kinda like that," said Irina. A slightly mischievous smile crossed her face.

"Hey, Irina, where are you from?" Jay seemed pretty curious as well.

"Uh... Japan? I think you might be the only one from outside the country, Caraway-san. Or maybe you prefer Miss Caraway," said Irina.

"Either is fine, but I'd rather you guys just call me Jay," she said. Surprisingly informal for a businesswoman.

"Hey, I've only been living here for a couple of years," said Ying.

As they continued talking to Irina, I decided to slip away. Of course, with my luck, I managed to bump into another student.

"Ah, I'm sorry for bumping into you!" A girl with light brown hair said, bowing. She seemed painfully shy, and she was kinda average-looking.

"Oh, no, it was my fault." I wasn't paying enough attention.

"Um... I'm a makeup artist!" She seemed slightly scared. I'm guessing that's her talent...

"Hi. I'm Rin Nakauchi," I told her.

"Uh, are you the hikikomori that Alice mentioned?" Damn that Alice. Now that's going to be my title.

"Yeah, that's me..." I've never felt so awkward around a person before...

"Oh... I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable!" Am I really that easy to read? "I've been told that I tend to make people uncomfortable," she continued. Poor girl.

"It's fine. Just try not to be so shy," I said as I walked away.

"Wait!" She stopped me. "Uh... could you help me? You don't seem to get out much, but you still seem more comfortable around these people than me..."

I sighed. I guess I could use this to my advantage. "Okay, since you seem to have met most of the others, at least, can you tell me who they are and what they do? This could be practice for speaking more comfortably." Also, this way I won't have to "socialize" much more.

"Sure... That boy over there is the Super High School Level Architect, and the taller boy next to him is the Super High School Level Construction Worker. I think they are the only ones that knew each other before coming here," she said as she pointed to the small, purple-haired boy from earlier and the taller, more muscular guy next to him. He was tan with light blonde hair. He kinda reminded me of another older anime character...

"Those two are Tobiki Wakabayashi and Kenzo Tsukuru, respectively," she continued. "The one with the orange hair is Bunpei Furuda, and he's the Super High School Level Athlete. He's talking to Shinobu Murai, the Super High School Level Martial Artist. The albino girl is the Super High School Level Politician, Kotaka Ido, and she's arguing with the Super High School Level Diplomat, Yasushi Sugihara." My attention was directed to the arguing pair, and I caught myself thinking that they would make a very attractive couple.

The shy girl continued. "The one with the shoulder-length brown hair and the green eyes is Tamaki Yanaihara, the Super High School Level Costume Maker. I think that's it..." she said indecisively.

Not quite. I still don't know who she is.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Ko Yamamoto, the Super High School Level Makeup Artist!"

Just Ko? Not Michiko or Hanako or anything? As I was getting ready to ask, Hanneko appeared back at the podium.

"Are you hapless bastards done talking yet? I'm going to continue the ceremony," said Hanneko. "You all are here to recreate the school arena that was started years ago! The rules are simple. One of you will commit murder. After a couple hours of investigating, we will have class trials that include mandatory attendance on the parts of all of the students. If you can figure out who committed the crime, your pathetic lives will be spared, and only the culprit will be punished. If not, you all will be punished as the culprit walks free. Simple."

We stood shocked. Kill the people that we just spent time getting to know in exchange or freedom? I don't believe anyone here could do it, to be honest. Then again, we've only spoken to each other for a short amount of time.

"I'll hand you guys a rulebook as well as an ElectroID later, so try not to do anything stupid in the meantime. The killing can't start until you know the rules. If you kill someone in the meantime, I'll just punish you there." Hanneko stopped to scratch his ear.

"Like hell we'll kill each other at all! None of us will stand for this," said a boy with slicked-back black hair and blue eyes. I think Ko said he was the diplomat, Sugihara.

"Oh, you will. Someone always kills," said Hanneko. I still don't think we have enough information.

"Excuse me, Hanneko, exactly what do you mean when you say 'punishment'? You never explained."

"Isn't it obvious? The punishment is a ridiculously theatrical death!" Hanneko seemed a bit too excited about that last part.

"Aaah! You CAN'T be serious!" Bunpei spoke up again.

"Oh, but I am. Well, until then, some classrooms have been converted into dwelling areas. You're dismissed to find the doors with your images on them. All of the doors lock, and only the girls showers lock. Have fun exploring!" Hanneko then left the podium and disappeared behind the curtains. Most of us were still too shocked to say anything. Eventually, students left the gym, probably to find their rooms and learn the layout of the school. Really, I wasn't interested. I probably stayed in the gym for another half an hour, and then left. Oh, well, I said to myself. I'm sure we won't commit any crimes.

Well, I could only really be certain that I wouldn't.


	2. Chapter One: A First Victim!

The artist's job is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote for the emptiness of existence

-Woody Allen

"May I have your attention? Even though this is a school and you will have assignments to do, most of the school day is used by free time events. If you want, go outside your rooms, mingle, explore the school, stab someone in the eye and watch them bleed to death, all of that is perfectly fine and according to the rules. Speaking of rules, you can find your rulebooks and your ElectroIDs in your mailboxes. Nya, have fun~"

Hanneko's announcement was some strange combination of cheery, disturbing, and authoritative. Even so, I'm kinda glad that most of what we get to do here doesn't actually _involve_ school work. That's one less stressor we'll have to deal with when it comes to the class trials. I don't want to believe any will actually happen, though. I'm hoping that someone will realize what's going on here and try to break us out. Many of the people here are pretty famous, so I'm sure someone will notice that they've gone missing and try to find them…

Then again, I've learned not to rely too much on others.

Well, I guess I should go to check my mail. The contents may prove useful.

I opened my door, but I think I accidentally hit someone. I should probably note that this door opens outward…

"God damn—I mean, oh, no! My dress! It'll get dirtied by the floor," groaned Alice. Why does this always happen to me, God? Oh, well. Better apologize before she gets even more pissed.

I peeked around the door slowly. "Hi, Alice…" She looked irritated.

"Listen here, otaku freak! I paid a decent amount of money for _every single garment_ that I am wearing, and I don't want to have to try to get the stains out. This outfit should be as clean as when I put it on this morning—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, detangling wigs and whatnot. But I honestly didn't mean to hit you. See, the doors open outward and—"

"Look. I'm not interested in your pathetic apologies. I'm just going to tell you—"

"Ack! Alice! Your nose is bleeding!" And it was. I had a feeling she wouldn't believe me, though.

"Nice try, _hikikomori_, but I think I'd notice if there was blood on my fa—"

As she was saying that, she moved one of her hands to her nose. A dark pink was left there when she pulled it away.

"… AAAAAGH! I'm going to get bloodstains on my dreeeesssss," she sobbed. I took her hand and tried to lead her to some sort of area where there may be supplies to clean up her nose.

"No, you're not, just calm down and come with me," I said. I then realized that I had no idea where anything was.

"Uh…" I said. Nezumi Karafuto was walking past us.

"Hey, it looks like you two are—ah! Alice-san's nose is bleeding!" Her expression changed from happy to urgent in a matter of seconds.

"Yeah, do you know if there's some sort of clinic around here? I'm still trying to learn my way around the school," I explained.

"Rin-chan doesn't know the way? No problem! I spent the last half-hour drawing up a map, so I think I can take her there," she said as she handed me a well-drawn map of the school.

"Wow, you did a really good job," I said.

"Thanks! I've had a lot of practice drawing maps," she stated proudly.

"I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T GET ME SOMEWHERE SOON I'M MAKING BOTH OF YOU PAY FOR THIS DRESS!" Oh, yeah. Alice.

"Oh! Right! Sorry," said Nezumi. She began to show us the way, but was interrupted by Alice.

"My dear darling mouse, if you don't mind, could you please take me to the clinic yourself? I'm not interested in winding up in any more 'accidents' due to Nakauchi," Alice spoke calmly, as if she was not just yelling at us thirty seconds ago.

"Uh, sure. Sorry, Rin-chan," Nezumi said to me, then took Alice by the hand.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did your nose start bleeding?"

"Nakauchi tried to kill me by slamming the door into me," she said. I. Swear. To. God.

They walked further away, and I somehow managed to become more worried and more relieved at the same time. I no longer had to deal with Alice, but I'm afraid now I'll be suspicious if a murder takes place. There's no way she's not going to make me look like the villain.

I wandered around more and found my way to the cafeteria. As I walked in, I noticed two guys sitting by the table, discussing something interestedly.

"Ah, it's one of our classmates! I'm Tobiki Wakabayashi, the Super High School Level Architect," said the smaller of the two. He stuck his hand out for me to shake.

I guess he didn't know me. Which is to be expected, since I never really introduced myself to him. "Uh… Hi. I'm Rin Nakauchi. I apologize, but I do not have any special skills," I said, embarrassed. I used to be fine with who I was, but being around so many talented people makes me feel kinda… inadequate…

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure you have some sort of amazing talent," he said, smiling. He had a very innocent, trusting smile. It almost made me want to believe him. While I appreciate it, I don't really need his reassurance. I'm just a talentless kid.

He continued to speak. "This guy is Kenzo Tsukuru, the Super High School Level Construction Worker. He's my best friend as well as the person I trust the most for building projects," Tobiki said proudly. The larger, tannish one grunted a "hi." These two seemed like exact opposites. Where Tobiki was short with wavy purple hair, a smallish form, and pale skin, Kenzo was tall, tan, and muscular with pale blonde hair. I guess this is more evidence of the "opposites attract" idea…

"Oh, cool. It seems like you two are the only two that were friends before coming to this school," I said.

"Yeah. We didn't go to the same schools or anything, but we grew up together as neighbors and partners. We've been together for fourteen years," said Kenzo. I was a bit shocked. He doesn't seem like he spoke much. His voice was ridiculously deep for a teenage boy.

"Wow, fourteen years. I'm kinda jealous," I said. I tried to keep an impressed tone, but I actually was jealous. I've barely been able to keep actual friends, and these two seemed like they have a strong relationship.

"Heh, no need to be. Wanna see what we're working on?" Before I could answer, he showed me a plan for a building. The design seemed incredibly impractical, but it had an interesting look to it. Tobiki talked about it, his and Kenzo's life at home, and other things for about half an hour. Kenzo didn't say much during the conversation. A few minutes later, two more people walked in.

"I appreciate it, Alice-san, but lolita fashion isn't really my thing," said a really cute girl with shoulder-length light brown hair and large green eyes. I think Ko introduced her as the costume maker, Tamaki Yanaihara.

"But Tamaki-chan, you're literally the perfect fit for a dress I designed a while ago! Please at least try it on? I wanna see how it looks," said Alice. I see that her nose has stopped bleeding and her dress is unharmed.

"Thanks, but really…"

"Pleeease? It'll look beautiful on you," said Alice nicely. I didn't realize she could be so nice. It seems kinda like she really only hates me. Okay.

"Uh, I know I'm not really part of your conversation, but I think you'd look pretty in lolita," said Tobiki. "Don't you agree, Kenzo?"

Kenzo grunted a "yeah," then got back to looking at the design.

"See? Even he thinks you'd look cute. You're a pretty girl, so you should be more confident," said Tobiki encouragingly.

"Oooh, I forget, you guys don't know. I'm actually a boy," said Yanaihara.

"Wha—HUH?! But you have such a cute face! I refuse to believe a boy can be that cute," said Alice. She probably didn't mean it to be, but it sounded kinda rude.

"Uh… Well, Tobiki has a sort of innocent look to him," said Yanaihara defensively.

"I guess, but Tobiki has more of a boyish look," said Alice.

"Also, there's Nakauchi-san," said Tobiki.

"Rin is more androgynous. Plus, there's nothing at all cute about Rin!" Well, that hurt a bit.

"Ah! Nakauchi-san, I'm sure she doesn't really mean it!" Tobiki tried to help, but I'm actually fine. Something like that might have hurt more, but then I realized it came from Alice. I think I'm good.

"Whatever," said Alice. "I rarely say something that I don't mean, by the way."

"Actually, now that I think about it, what _are _you, Nakauchi-san?"

A bell rang.

"Nya, may I have your attention? Everyone must now meet in the amphitheater. Attendance is mandatory for all students. Try to make it on time~"

I got scared. Was this one of the class trials? I didn't even know who died! I've had no chances to investigate.

"Oh, no," said Kenzo. Hearing even him worrying did nothing to ease mine.

"Hey, Nakauchi-san, wanna walk with—" Yanaihara started speaking, but Alice grabbed his hand and walked away.

"Come on, I've got other designs to show you! I've made boystyle designs, too!" She walked away excitedly, making sure to not let him finish his question. Oh, well. I walked out of the cafeteria, and Tobiki and Kenzo followed.

"So, do either of you guys know where the theater is?" Couldn't hurt to ask. I still had no idea where I even was.

"Sorry, but as soon as we left the gym, we wandered into the cafeteria. We haven't seen the rest of the school yet," said Tobiki.

"Yay! Rin-chan's made more friends!" Nezumi found me again. I just noticed, she's calling me by my first name.

"Hello, Karafuto-san," said Tobiki.

"Yo," said Kenzo. Wow, seems like Nezumi's been doing a good job at making friends. She even got Kenzo to greet her without prompting. Wait, there's something Nezumi showed me earlier…

"Hey, Nezumi, can you lead us to the amphitheater?"

"Sure thing. I made copies of the map I showed you in the office. One for you—" she handed one to me—"And here's two more for you," she said as she handed the other two a map. I can see that she made some improvements to it.

"Come on, let's go! At first I wasn't able to get to the area where the theater was, but Hanneko must have unlocked it since then, because I was able to find it a while later," said Nezumi. "Also, I was scared to go too far in, so I don't know if there's anything behind it, yet. Sorry about that."

She pointed out places to us on the way there. Turns out that the amphitheater was on the opposite end from the cafeteria and the gym.

We were the last ones to make it. The amphitheater was impressively big considering it's for a school. The seats were lined with burgundy leather, and each one had a plate with the row and seat coordinates. The stage looked as if it hasn't even been stepped on. The lacquered finish looked new, and the burgundy curtains contrasted well with the light brown wooden floor. Needless to say, I liked how this room looked. It's a nice, spacious change from the other rooms in the school.

"Uh, hello? Earth to Nakauchi, we're starting this meeting soon," called Hanneko's voice. A few students giggled.

"Now that you're done with your space trip, find a seat close to the front with the rest of the students, you four," said Hanneko.

"Don't worry," Nezumi whispered. "I was impressed at first, too."

"Okay, now that we're all here, let's start. Is there anything you guys have discovered within the past couple of hours?" Hanneko seemed eager to see what we knew.

"None of us have cellphones," said Jay.

"Yes, I confiscated most of them. Can't have you guys calling and worrying your families, now can we? If you had no one to contact, you probably still have a phone," explained Hanneko.

"I still have mine," whispered Ying, who was sitting in front of me. She started to look upset…

"Also, there are some locked doors. They don't seem to be for classrooms," said Nezumi.

"Nya, that's because they're not. I'll explain more about those later," said Hanneko.

"The kitchen's full of food! It's unbelievable," said the athlete.

"Yeah. It's restocked every other day," said Hanneko. Some things around here are way too convenient.

"Anyway, for the real reason behind this meeting. I'm sure at least a few of you realized I'm not too interested in hearing stuff that I already know. I explained earlier that you guys will have assignments to do while you're here…" Hanneko seemed to be waiting for someone to say something.

Irina complied. "Yeah…?"

"Well, for your first assignment, you guys will be putting on a play! From the start of the writing to the final curtain call, you Super High School Level Bastards will create a theatrical masterpiece that doesn't suck! Participation is mandatory, and you all have individual assignments that help build the play up!" Hanneko seemed really excited.

"So, you mean, we're going to perform in front of people?" The one to ask this was Irina. I expected her to be excited as well, but she sounded hesitant.

"Kinda. Anywho, for your assignments. Yamamoto, Alice, and Yanaihara. You three are responsible for costumes and makeup. Murai, Tsukuru, Karafuto, Furuda, and Wakabayashi are set designers and builders as well as running crew. Jay and Kawaii are responsible for promoting the play—"

"Wait, so we'll be able to make contact with the outside world? That seems odd," said Jay.

"Yep. But don't pull any tricks, or you'll be punished severely," explained Hanneko. "Anyway, Hanai and Ying are responsible for the script. Ido and Sugihara, you two will be directors." Hanneko finished reading off his list. "Any questions?"

"Uh, yeah, what exactly am I supposed to do?" Irina asked this. She and I were the only two with no clear assignments.

"Isn't it obvious, dear? You'll be the star," said Hanneko.

"Uh, I can't be the only performer in this entire show," said Irina.

"Of course not. All of you will be starring! Exceeeeept…" He looked in my direction. "Nakauchi. You're not listed here for anything. Uh… You're responsible for the program and consessions. Any more questions?"

"Uh, yeah. Exactly when is this play being performed?" Hanai asked this.

"In three days!"

"WHAT?!" Alice yelled. "We can't write a script, build sets, advertise, and design costumes in three days!"

"Not to mention having to memorize it all," added Yanaihara.

"Too bad. Almost all of you will participate. The only ones excused will be anyone that's dead. Get to work! You guys should be able to find all that you'll need around here. Good luck!" With that, Hanneko leapt off the stage and into the unusually deep orchestra pit.

Everyone dispersed into their groups after a few minutes. I was getting ready to leave, but I was stopped. This time by Tougo Hanai.

"Nakauchi-kun. Since it seems like you don't have a group, you can help me. I can already tell that Ying isn't going to be of much use," he said condescendingly.

"Oh, Tougo-kun, we should make it a futuristic-type action movie with electrolight swords and space ships!" Ying was stating some… extravagant ideas.

"I already told you, we need something that's reasonable. I'm not sure we even have a budget for something like that. Plus, it's not a movie. It's a play," said Hanai. He then turned to me. "You see what I have to deal with? So, I figured—"

"Sorry, kid, but I'm not doing this," I explained.

"What? Rin, aren't you worried about what he may do?" Nezumi, who I didn't even think could hear us, started running in my direction.

"Uh, you mean Hanneko? Probably nothing," I said.

"I wouldn't chance it," said Hanai.

"Yeah," said Nezumi. "If he'll kill you for just breaking a rule, imagine what kind of trouble you'll get in for direct defiance of him!"

While I didn't want to admit it, she had a point. While I'm not exactly thrilled about living, I'm less thrilled about dying.

"Fine, fine," I said reluctantly. "So, what kind of story is it?"

"Whatever it is, it's definitely not involving electrolight swords," he said half-jokingly.

We all worked on stuff for this assignment for about three hours, then decided to break for lunch. I'm not entirely sure what Hanneko's trying to do, but this is actually helping a lot of us get our minds off our current situation. I'm not sure if that should worry me or not.

After I finished eating, I decided to wander the school some more using Nezumi's map. It's ridiculously accurate. I wound up going to the gymnasium again. The martial artist was in there, kicking at the padded wall on one end of the room. He spotted me.

"Hey," said Shinobu. "You're the one that tried to kill Alice, right?"

"Uh, no," I said. "That was an accident."

"Hehe, I'm kidding. The way she explained it to me made it sound like you were, but I kinda managed to figure out that it wasn't on purpose," he said.

I groaned. "So, she's actually telling people I tried to kill her?"

"Yep. But don't worry about it. She's the only one taking it seriously," he explained. "So, I should introduce myself. I'm Shinobu Murai, the Super High School Level Martial Artist," he said as he kept kicking.

"Hi. I'm Rin Nakauchi. I don't have a title," I said, hoping this could get the word _hikikomori_ off my name.

"Yeah, I've heard. Don't let that bother you, though. Titles don't define anyone's character," he said. Seems like everyone wants me to feel fine about being mediocre.

"So, which martial art do you practice?"

"All of them."

"All? How?"

"Well, not really all. Just whatever I feel like practicing at the time. I've learned techniques from karate, aikido, judo, kung fu, sambo, muay thai, Chinese kempo, tae kwon do, and some others that I forgot. Right now, I'm practicing capoeira."

Wow, this guy's intense. "I bet you're really disciplined, then," I said.

"Well, I've learned to be. I try to practice for at least two hours every day, along with other exercises," he explained.

"Can I ask why?"

"Sure. I do it for defense, whether it be of myself or of others. When I was in elementary school, some middle schoolers would bully me every day because of my hair. Almost everyone there had black or brown hair, and as you can see, mine is red. I asked my mom if she could help, and she brought me to an old man. He instilled in me how necessary it was for me to be able to defend those in trouble, including myself.

A week later, one of the middle school kids tried to hit me. I managed to block his punch, which startled him. He tried to hit me again, but I managed to dodge all of them. After one more attempted hit, I blocked him, moved directly next to him, and managed to land a kick right at the back of his leg, causing him to fall and hurt his head. Needless to say, he and his friends never bothered me again, and I realized that I actually enjoyed learning martial arts since it helped me stand up to one of my fears. Also, I almost got expelled, but that's a different story, heh," he recounted.

"That was an interesting story. But that seems unusual. Physical bullying is rare, so why didn't someone intervene when they saw it?"

"I—I don't know," he said. "Maybe it looked like playing to passers-by."

"Oh," I said, uncertain. He spoke again.

"There was another incident. In my second year of middle school, I saw a girl being harassed by one of the high schoolers. Despite her insistence, he wouldn't leave her alone. Both of them began to get angry, and as I saw the guy raising his hand, I felt like I had to stop it. I jumped in front of the girl in time and landed a punch in his jaw while blocking the hit. Turns out his mother was the principal of my school, and I actually did get expelled then," he said. "The girl never even looked at me after that, though. I'm not sure why. But I can't _stand_ when people try to take advantage of the weak," he said somewhat angrily. I decided to leave him for a while. I said bye, and wandered around the school a little bit more. Nezumi's map didn't have the amphitheater completely filled out, so I decided to go make that part for myself. Plus, I kinda wanted to see the theater again.

I made my way there and walked behind the curtains. There was a door that led to a huge, messy room full of tools, building supplies, and pieces to old sets. Well, I can see that this is some sort of prop and set room. I began to fill that in on my map, and walked further into the spacious room.

Oh, how I regret doing so. Nothing I could do could prepare myself for what I would see. Lying on a platform in a pool of pink was the Super High School Level Construction Worker, Kenzo Tsukuru. I screamed, but all that came to find me was blackness…


	3. Chapter One: The First Trial!

"Rin-chan! Rin-chan! Wake up!"

I awoke to the frantic shouting of… a girl… When I opened my eyes, Nezumi was there leaning over me. She was crying. After she saw that I was awake, she hugged me tightly.

"Waaah! Rin-chan, I'm so glad you're okay! I was worried that someone attacked you! Nobu-kun heard screams, and then I realized that I couldn't find you, so we went to look for you and—"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I interrupted her. "Besides, I'm not the one you should worry about…"

"What do you…" As she was saying this, she looked forward and noticed Kenzo's body. She started crying again.

"Tsu-Tsu-Tsu… TSUKURU-KUN! Oh, my God, where's Tobi-kun?! He's going to be devastated when he finds out," said Nezumi. Shinobu walked further into the room, towards Kenzo's corpse. A single (manly) tear fell from one eye.

"How… How could I have let this happen?..." Poor guy. He probably feels like this is his fault. After hearing his stories, I'm sure he would have tried to prevent something like this.

Nezumi walked towards Shinobu and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "It's not your fault."

"No… it's not okay," he said. He was quiet for the rest of the time there.

"Hey, guys, what are you—AAAAAH! NO! Tan blonde guy!" A new voice. It went from unaccented to South American. I turned to see Irina and Jay enter the room.

"Nya nya nya NYAAAA ~! Hello, you hapless bastards! This is the first time you've heard an announcement of this nature, so let me explain a bit. This is a Corpse Discovery Announcement! That's right; one of your friends has been murdered by one of you jerks! Nya ha ha! It hasn't even been nine hours since school started! Anyway, these announcements go off after at least three people have discovered a dead body. I'll give you guys time to investigate as well as a sort of crime report, because I am nothing if not fair. Check your ElectroIDs in a couple of minutes. Good luck~"

Wait, how could Hanneko have known that anyone had died?

"I've got hidden cameras everywhere, nya," said Hanneko.

"Aaah! When did you get here?" Jay asked what I'm guessing we all were thinking.

"That's not important. Anyway, I just came here to answer Rin's question. Later nya~" he said as he left. Okay, I can't be _that_ easy to read.

Jay checked her ElectroID. "There's something new here. It says 'Monokuma File #1.' What does 'Monokuma' mean?"

"Hell if I know," I said.

"Maybe Glasses-guy can help! He's a language expert," said Irina.

"That's right… I need to find the others," said Shinobu kinda dully. He seemed like he had the life sucked out of him as he left the room.

"Anyway, Jay, can you read what the file says? It's probably the thing Hanneko was sending out," I said.

"Sure thing," she said.

" 'The victim is Kenzo Tsukuru. Time of death is approximately 3:00 p.m. The body was found in the set and props room in the amphitheater of the main building. The victim appears to have blunt force trauma and bruises to the head, which is covered in and surrounded by blood. If you experience similar problems while taking the medications, please call… oh, wait, this isn't a—' WHY THE HELL IS THIS WRITTEN IN HERE?! Damn that stupid plush toy," said Jay angrily.

Three? I started thinking… Where was I at three?

"About half of us were in the cafeteria at three… we need to find out who all left before then," said Irina. Her voice had changed to a Japanese accent again.

While they were doing this, I went closer to Kenzo's body. His head appeared to be completely bashed in with something. Upon closer inspection, I noticed he had an oddly-shaped bruise on the back of his neck. It looked sort of like a bold "x." He also had some dark hairs in his hand… That's weird…

"Okay, so, we know for certain that Rin, Alice, Jay, Irina, Tougo and me were still in the cafeteria by three," said Nezumi.

"Yanaihara was probably still there, too, since Alice has been following her all day," said Irina. So, she hasn't found out yet. I can't wait to see her face when she does.

"Also, Kenzo asked Tobiki to meet with him about something about 15 minutes after we started. I haven't seen Tobiki since," said Nezumi.

At this time, Tougo opened the door to the room. He was panting.

"I… ran… all the way… tamper… prevent… culprit… water… please…"

"Okay, okay, stop talking. You'll start panting more," said Jay. "Hey, can anyone get this guy some water?"

"There's a fountain in this room, past Kenzo," said Nezumi. She appears to have calmed down for the most part. She still had some tears in her eyes, though.

"Hm… He does have a good point, though," I said. "Someone probably needs to stay and guard the body to keep someone from messing with anything."

"I'll be able to do that," said Irina. "I probably won't be of much help during the investigation, but I can at least help with this." Her accent still isn't back.

"Okay. But I think someone should stay with you," said Nezumi.

"Why? Do you think I might mess with evidence?"

"No, no! Not at all. It's just that, what if the killer comes back? He or she might try to fight you, too."

"Oh, so you think I won't be able to take them on?"

"No! I mean—"

"Hehe, it's okay, I'm just messing with you," said Irina. She smiled jokingly.

"Anyway, if you two are done with your exchange, I'd also like to volunteer to keep watch," said Tougo as he returned from the other end of the room.

"Okay. Thanks. We should probably all start. Plus, we need to communicate with the others," said Nezumi.

"Oh, that's easy," said Jay. "The ElectroIDs also have a messaging setting. All of our contacts are already loaded in, plus some other weird names. Maybe former students."

"How'd _you_ find that out?" Tougo and his condescending tone again.

"I overheard Neko and Shinobu talking about it," said Jay.

Oh, right. I forgot about Neko. In any case, I should probably find some of the others. Quite a few people were in here, so they could probably find enough clues between them.

I decided to try to find Tobiki. Those two were practically joined at the hip before this… Come to think of it, where could Tobiki be? I tried to figure this out as I walked back to the other end of the school. I'd probably get more info from all the members of the running crew, now that I think about it…

I found the door with Tobiki's face on it. This must be his room, I thought. I tried knocking on the door.

"Um… Wakabayashi-kun…." I knocked again, and he opened the door slightly.

"I know… it's all my fault…"

Jeez, does everyone here have a guilt complex? Then again, this case is understandable. His best friend was killed.

"It's not your fault, Wakabayashi-kun."

"Yes, it is…. I… could have saved him… I saw him… it's my fault…"

He saw something? "Wakabayashi, can you please tell me what you 'saw'?"

"Please… I can't… I'm sorry…"

He closed the door. Well, that was… awkward… But it may help somewhat. I decided to try to find Bunpei next. As I passed my room, I remembered that I still didn't get my ElectroID. After I picked it up and activated it, I saw the homescreen. I had one new message from Nezumi.

Message from Nezumi Karafuto, received 5:03 p.m.

Rin-chan! Can you meet with me in about ten minutes? I have more information to share.

Why couldn't she tell me through this? I began to respond, but then I noticed that there was something that counted down from one hundred. There must be a character limit.

Message to Nezumi Karafuto, sent 5:04 p.m.

Okay. I'm looking for Bunpei now, so you may find me by him.

I played around a bit more with the ElectroID. There was an application with real time student locations. The only name I couldn't find was "Kenzo Tsukuru."

Bunpei's location is in the gym. When I arrived, I saw him playing basketball. I've never spoken to this guy before, so I don't know exactly how to approach him…

"Yo," he said. I guess I don't have to.

"Uh… yo. Why are you here?"

"Not really one for investigating. But I'm not worried, I trust you guys."

He's not taking this seriously enough. "Anyway, you were part of the set crew with Kenzo, right?"

"Yep. Didn't see anything in him or his friend change, if that's what you mean. They were pretty much together like they normally are."

"Oh. Okay… Well, have you noticed anything at all?"

He kept dribbling the ball. "Not really. Well, I did, but it's probably got nothing to do with the investigation."

"What is it?"

"There are some star indentations on the padded wall over there," he said. "Some of them overlap, but it's almost definitely stars."

Well, that doesn't seem very useful, honestly. I thanked him for the information and then left. I began to make my way back to the theater. Maybe some people there found some new evidence. Again, I ran into Nezumi.

"Hey, Rin! The girls and I found out when everyone left the cafeteria," she said triumphantly.

"Awesome. Tell me."

"Okay. At the time of Kenzo's death, you, me, Tougo, Irina, Jay, Alice, and Tamaki were still in the cafeteria. Some time between 2:50 and then, Ying and Neko left. At around 2:50, Bunpei, Yasushi, and Kotaka left. Also, Shinobu also left around the same time as Kenzo and Tobiki, which was about 2:45."

"What about Yamamoto-san?"

"She… I think she went to eat lunch in her room. She left around 2:35," she said.

"Okay."

"Also, I saw her walking towards the amphitheater a while ago," she added.

"Alright. Thanks for the information. You've helped a lot," I commended her. She blushed a bit.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm going to try to see if I can get into Kenzo's room. Later!"

"Later," I replied. I began to walk back towards the amphitheater. I didn't see Ko yet. She might be by the prop room. I went back on stage again. I noticed someone moving, but the backstage area was too dark for me to see who.

"Is… is anyone there?" Okay, I admit it. I was a little scared.

"Huh? Hikikomori-san?" I heard a vaguely familiar voice. It had to be Ko's.

"Oh, it's just you, Yamamoto-san," I said.

"Yeah, I—AAGH!" I heard a thud and walked towards her.

"Oh my God, Yamamoto-san, are you okay? Sounds like you fell pretty hard," I said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. This happens pretty often," she said.

"Anyway, what did you trip on? I can't see anything."

She then picked up a fallen curtain. "Huh? There's something in it," she said. She then pulled out a thick piece of wood. It was about a meter long, and it had pink stains on one end. Looked like someone tried to wash it off…

"Yamamoto-san," I said. "I think you just found the murder weapon." She looked upset.

A bell rang.

"Excuse me? Can I have your attention? Investigation time is soon coming to a close. Do any last-minute lookovers and meet me in the gymnasium. The class trial will start promptly at 6:15. Thank nya for listening. Bye~"

Oh, no. It's 5:55 now. It takes about 15 minutes for us to walk to the other end of the school. We only have a few more minutes to investigate…

"Yamamoto-san, have you found anything else out?" There may be more evidence around here.

"Uh… no…" She leaned against a wall, and the backstage area was filled with light startlingly quickly.

"Ah! I got worried for a second," she said, then giggled.

"Me, too…" I turned to where the curtain seemed to come from. There was a bloodstain on the floor.

"There's a small blood stain on this curtain," said Ko.

"Yeah, there's one small one on the floor, too… I think we should get going… It takes about 15 minutes to get from the theater to the gym," I said.

"Oh… Okay," she said. Tougo, Jay, and Irina came back from the backstage area.

"Well, it looks like we should all go now," said Tougo. Everyone else agreed. I tried to go back over some things that may help the investigation while we were walking to the gym.

"So, did anyone else come to investigate in the prop room after I left?" I hadn't seen much of anyone else, and I was curious to see if they'd gone by.

"Yeah," Irina said. Her accent had returned. "Alice and Tamaki came by together, then they both left after asking us some questions. Then Ying came by. She didn't seem too phased by it. Alice and Tamaki both got somewhat upset."

"Ah. I see." So, Bunpei really didn't go to see what was going on. Neither did Tobiki or Neko…

We made it to the gymnasium. Almost everyone except Tobiki and Nezumi were there. It's 6:12…

"Hello, every-nyan! How did your investigations go? I bet that crime report was really helpful," said Hanneko.

"I don't want to hear that from you," said Jay. She's still pissed about the joke, it seems.

"Hey, where's Tobiki? He's going to be a pretty key part in this trial," said Hanneko. Of course he is. Maybe Nezumi's coaxing him out of his room…

"We're here," said Nezumi. She was holding Tobiki by the hand. His expression was about the same as Shinobu's. Both seemed to have the life sucked out of them, but Tobiki seemed… less dead inside, somehow.

"Alright! Now that everyone's here, we can proceed with the trial. Everyone, stand on the logo. I'll see you there~" With that, Hanneko jumped onto the stage and out of sight.

"Why do we have to—AAH! It's moving down!" Kotaka shouted. She almost fell off, but was caught by Yasushi. It appears that the circular logo also doubles as an elevator. Everyone else was trying to frantically squeeze onto it.

So, this elevator is leading us to the courtroom where the class trial will be held. Hopefully we've prepared enough to survive this trial.

"Soooo? What do you guys think of the courtroom?" Hanneko asked us this when we arrived. The courtroom looked just like the amphitheater, but the seats went full circle around the center of the room instead. There were sixteen wooden podia with burgundy leather on the top (probably for those that want to lean over), and one high, large chair lined with red velvet. Hanneko climbed onto that chair.

"Excuse me, Hanneko-san, why are there sixteen podiums here? At any point when we'd come here, there wouldn't be more than 15 students," said Yasushi. He had a point.

"Just something I like to do to honor the dead. If you'll look closely, one of these podia has a picture of a certain someone behind it," he said. There was one with Kenzo's picture on it and a red "X" through it. The "X" appeared to be drawn into a hammer and a manual screwdriver. Tobiki looked upset, then gave a forced laugh.

"Anyway, find your podium and stand behind it. It's time to start this trial!" Hanneko sat back on his chair.

I decided to begin. "So, what do we know about—"

Alice interrupted me. "Save it, murderer! We don't need to hear you try to defend yourself."

"I—WHAT?! WHAT THE _HELL_ MAKES YOU THINK I KILLED KENZO?"

"BECAUSE YOU'VE TRIED TO KILL BEFORE!"

"**OH MY GOD **THAT WAS A FUCKING ACCIDENT!"

"HEEEY!" Nezumi interrupted us. "Alice, what on Earth makes you think that Rin-chan killed Tsukuru-kun?"

"What are they even talking about? When did Nakauchi-san try to kill someone?" Yasushi asked this.

"She's referring to the accident they had earlier," said Ying. Jeez, is Alice trying to completely ruin me?

"ANYWAY! Can we get back to the subject at hand? Alice, take this more seriously," said Tougo.

"I AM! In fact, I have reason to believe so," said Alice.

"And exactly what could that be?" Irina asked this. Her accent is still there. I wonder why it goes away sometimes…

"My brown-eyed doe, don't you remember all those questions I asked you?"

"Uh… Kinda…"

"Let me help. Hanneko, can I ask you a question?"

"Nya, whatever," said Hanneko.

"How many people does it take for a Corpse Discovery Announcement?"

"At least three," said Hanneko.

"And does this include the culprit?"

"In this case, no. Three people besides the murderer would have to 'discover' the body," explained Hanneko. Shinobu's expression changed to… confusion?

"I thought so," continued Alice. "Thank you. Now, my darling mouse," she said, turning to Nezumi. "You arrived at the scene before the announcement, right?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Exactly. Now, Irina, if Nezumi is number one to arrive, which number are you?"

"Uh… Three?"

"Yes, that is correct. And did the announcement go off after this time?"

"Yeah…" She looked at me doubtfully.

"Alright. That has to mean that that _hikikomori_ is the one who killed him!"

"That's enough, Alice," said Tougo. "You're still letting your petty personal grudge get in the way of reaching a proper conclusion. Besides, Nakauchi-kun has an alibi."

Huh? Oh, yeah…

"Nezumi," I said. "You have the list of times when people left the cafeteria. The time of death is about 3:00, according to the Monokuma File. Who was still there at that time?"

"Right. Rin-chan, me, Tougo-kun, Alice-san, Tamaki-chan, Jay-chan, and Iririn were still there," said Nezumi.

"She's right," said Tougo. "Alice, you should have been the last one to accuse Nakauchi-kun considering Nakauchi-kun was one of the last to leave the cafeteria. You were even making fun of how long it took Nakauchi-kun to eat."

"Anyway," I said. "Can we get back to the trial? Nezumi, thank you."

"No problem," she said.

"So, maybe we should all take a look at the Monokuma File," I said. I read over it again. "Alright, the important information is that Kenzo died around 3:00. He has signs of blunt-force trauma to the head as well as bruising, and he was found in the props room."

"Hm… 'found' isn't a very specific word," said Neko.

"She's right," I said. "Really, if you think about it, just saying he was found there doesn't mean that's where he was killed."

"I… I know where he died…" Ko's voice was barely above a whisper.

"What was that? We can't hear you," said Kotaka.

"I said I know where he died. Or, I think I do," said Ko. I think I know what she means…

"Yamamoto-san, are you talking about the backstage area?" I remembered that we saw the board there…

"Yeah… That would explain why the courtroom is decorated like this, anyway…"

"I'm glad some-nyan appreciates my decorating work," said Hanneko. "Oh, the struggles of a starving artist."

"Tell me about it," whispered Nezumi.

"Yamamoto-san has more important information to share," I said. I could say it myself, but this could make for good practice for her.

"I… uh… there was a board…" she whispered. "It looked like it was used to kill Kenzo-kun. It also seemed like someone was trying to wash the blood off, but some staining set in. The board was also wrapped up in a fallen curtain. There were also bloodstains on the floor… probably being covered by the curtain…"

"Hm. That seems like pretty significant information," said Kotaka.

"While I'm not sure exactly how much it tells us, it does seem to give us the murder weapon," said Tougo. "Going back to the washed appearance, I did notice some bloodstains in the water fountain in the prop room. Naturally, I no longer felt thirsty after that."

"Moving on," he continued. "Did anyone look at the body?"

"I tried to," said Tamaki, "but the sight of it made me sick. There's a difference between killing someone and brutally murdering them. The culprit seemed to enjoy murdering him." Tobiki looked hurt. He hasn't said much, but Hanneko said he'd be key to this trial…

"I did a bit," I said, trying not to look at Tobiki. "He was facedown, and he had a weird bruise on his neck."

"How weird?" Tougo again.

"It was shaped kinda like a bold 'X'," I said. "He also had hairs in his hand."

"I saw those," said Nezumi. "I picked them out of his hand. They were purple…"

Tobiki looked at Nezumi, and she looked back. "Tobi-kun," she said. "These hairs belong to you, don't they?"

"Y-yeah," he said. He went quiet again.

"And Kenzo did ask to meet you before 3:00, right?" Tobiki only nodded this.

"Don't tell me… Tobiki, did you kill Kenzo?"

Tobiki started crying after this.

"It all makes sense! I think I know what happened," Irina said in a Japanese accent. "As much as I don't want to think about it, it probably went down like this; Tan Blonde Guy asked Short Best Friend to go with him to the theater around 2:45. When they get backstage, Tan Blonde grabs Best Friend by the hair and then tries to kill Best Friend, but surprisingly, Best Friend fights back, picks up a stray board, and hits him with it, then knocking him out. In order to make sure he doesn't come after him again, he beats him over the head with it and then brings him to the prop room, where he then places Tan Blonde's body on the platform and goes behind it to the water fountain to wash it off!"

Many people seemed to think Irina's theory made sense. But something's not sitting right with me… Kenzo was significantly bigger than Tobiki… He couldn't have carried him all that way like that. Plus, Tobiki would be covered in blood stains…

"You've got that wrong," I said to Irina. "While there is some plausibility to your theory, it's riddled with inconsistencies. First, Tobiki is small and thin. No offense to him, but I doubt he could carry his friend, who was taller and more muscular. Second, the blood stains backstage weren't very big at all. More like drops, to be honest. He'd have left stains everywhere if it happened the way you said it did." I could have continued, but I think two points is enough right now.

"Hmph. Fine," she said.

"Hey, can we get back to the body? I think you guys glossed over one detail," said Ying. "Nakauchi-kun mentioned a bruise. Where was it again?"

"It was on his neck. Now that I think about it…" I tried to picture it again. The bruise's shape seemed to lead to… points on the ends…

"Bunpei!" I called to him. He seemed startled.

"Yeah," he responded.

"You said you saw stars on one of the padded walls in the gym, right? I asked.

"Yeah, I did. They kinda reminded me of some star shapes I've seen on an old anime show. Come to think of it, Ken kinda looked like one of the characters on the show…"

"Uh… right. Anyway, what exactly did those stars look like?" I have a hunch, and I'm almost certain it's correct.

"They only had four points, if that's what you mean," he said.

I've almost got it. There's only one possible reason those stars would be there… Kicks!

"I know who did it," I said definitively.

"Well, don't just stand there! Tell us who," said Tougo.

I turned to face the culprit. "It was Shinobu Murai."

He looked at me, but neither confirmed nor denied it.

"What? How? I doubt that's true," said Alice.

"It is," I said.

"What would stars on the wall have to do with him?"

"When I met him in the gym, it was after the murder had taken place. He was kicking the wall. After that, I discovered the body and noticed the bruise after awakening. When I went back to the gym to try to speak to Bunpei, he pointed out that there were star indentations on the padded wall where I saw Shinobu kicking."

"That's silly. How could he have stars on his feet?"

"More than likely part of the shoe's design."

"Then why isn't he covered in blood?"

"Remember the curtain that was mentioned earlier? He probably wrapped Kenzo in that, then brought him to the props room."

"Well, if he killed him there, why did he bother even bringing him?"

"Killed with a single kick to the head? Very few people could probably kick Tsukuru-kun in the neck and actually do enough damage to him. Murai-kun probably realized this and tried to make it look like he was killed some other way."

"That's stupid."

"That's a stupid argument."

"Nothing you're saying makes sense!"

"It makes perfect sense if you think about it."

"Anyway, you still haven't proven that Murai-kun did it! He devotes himself to the protection of others. **There's no way someone like that could kill someone.**"

"And that's precisely where you're wrong, Alice."

"W-What?!"

That was exhausting… "Let me explain what I've realized. That's exactly why he killed Tsukuru-kun. While Irina's theory was mostly wrong, she was right about at least one thing: Tsukuru-kun tried to kill Wakabayashi-kun.

First, let me tell you what Nezumi told me earlier. From the beginning, when just looking at lunch, almost everyone has an alibi except Yamamoto-san, who left after getting food, Wakabayashi-kun, who left with Tsukuru-kun, and Murai-kun, who left shortly after the two friends. Murai-kun probably had the same suspicions as Irina, and was worried for Wakabayashi-kun's safety. He had observed them from the darkness in the backstage area, since it's pretty hard to see. Tsukuru-kun and Wakabayashi-kun were probably in the lighter area, closer to the stage. When it looked to him that Tsukuru-kun was about to hurt Wakabayashi-kun—i.e., after Tsukuru-kun grabbed Wakabayashi-kun's hair—Murai-kun ran out of the shadows behind Tsukuru-kun and killed him with a single blow to the neck, leaving the bruise there.

Wakabayashi-kun probably left around this time. He was so devastated, he could barely speak in full sentences, and he blamed himself for Tsukuru-kun's death—more than likely because he had seen Murai-kun commit the crime. Realizing what he had done, he tried desperately to come up with a plan. He decided to hide the body in the props room, putting it on the paltform. He then decided to bash Tsukuru-kun's head in with the wooden board that Yamamoto-san found. It was probably just a board laying around in the room, which had building supplies everywhere. This was probably to make it seem like he was not the one to do it, because, honestly, hitting someone with a board doesn't seem like an accomplished martial artist would do.

After wrapping the body in the curtain and bringing it to the room, he created the scene, then tried to wash the board off with the water from the water fountain in the room. When he realized the board still had stains in it, he tried to hide it in the curtain that he used to wrap Kenzo's body, then use that to cover up the bloodstain on the floor backstage.

At this point, he probably realized that he'd done something regrettable and terrible. He ran back to the gym, and decided to practice capoeira, more than likely to vent his frustrations physically or get his mind off the incident. I met with him there about thirty minutes before I left to see the theater."

Most of them seemed to accept my theory as true.

"Oh, that makes sense! Nobu-kun was the third person to see the body after Rin-chan, but the announcement only went off after Iririn saw him," said Nezumi.

"Right," I said.

"Wait," said Neko. "That doesn't explain the bloodstains on the floor. If all he did to him in the theater was kick him, how did they get there?"

"Kenzo's nose was bleeding," said Tobiki.

"Wakabayashi-kun?" I was surprised.

"I'm sorry, Shinobu-kun," said Tobiki. "While I appreciate that you've given me a second chance at life, and I owe you that much, I can't sacrifice the others for only your sake."

"That's fine," Shinobu said.

"Nakauchi-san's theory is exactly right," said Tobiki. "While I don't want to accept it as true, my best friend was trying to kill me…"

"Tobi-kun…"

"So, are you guys ready to cast your votes on who you think the culprit is?" I had almost forgotten about Hanneko. "Never mind, we may as well start anyway. Will you all be right, or will you be oh, so wrong?"

After what seemed like a taunting amount of time, all of the ballots were cast.

"You all… are CORRECT! The culprit in this case is the Super High School Level Meowrtial Artist, Shinobu Murai," said Hanneko.

"Wait," said Shinobu.

"Ugh, what is it now?" Alice seems a bit too impatient.

"Hanneko, you said something earlier. The Corpse Discovery Announcement goes off after three people discover a corpse?" I think I see where Shinobu was going with this.

"Nyeah, what of it?"

"Then… why didn't it go off after Nezumi-san saw it?"

"Oh, that? Simple. At that point, Kenzo Tsukuru wasn't dead."

I was floored. From the look on everyone's face, so were they. Especially Shinobu.

"W-WHAT?! You're lying!"

"Nyow, I may withhold secrets about the school, but I don't lie. Or, at least, now I'm not," defended Hanneko. So, Murai-kun wound up killing Tsukuru-kun intentionally… on accident?

This is why I hate irony.

"Yep. You jumped to conclusions again. Just like you did in middle school."

Shinobu looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Surely you remember. The girl you had a crush on, who was being 'assaulted' by that highschooler? Turns out she asked him to help her make a video about girls speaking up against rape and domestic abuse for her club. The boy you attacked was actually her boyfriend."

Wow. I can almost feel the agony I see expressed in Shinobu's face. He thought he was saving that girl, but he ended up ruining her project…

"Now that that's out of the way, it's Super Special Custom Punishment Time!" Hanneko pressed a button, and Shinobu was pulled away. We were directed to look at a screen in one part of the courtroom. Shinobu's scared face had appeared on screen. He was inside what looked to be the sort of 'skeleton' of a building.

"If he can break all the boards before the edifice is finished, he survives. If not, he'll end up killed," said Hanneko excitedly.

He started breaking boards left and right, but the construction worker was working really quickly. He started breaking the building down more quickly.

"Hey…" said Tobiki. He started tearing up again. I looked back to the screen and realized why. The building looked just like the one Kenzo and Tobiki designed together. Shinobu was still breaking boards. As he got the bright idea to break the boards in the middle and collapse the structure, the roof was being built. He hadn't realized this as he broke one of the support beams. The roof then collapsed in on him and killed him.

"AAAAAGH!" I was startled when I realized that scream came from me. I was angry as well. I turned to Hanneko.

"Listen here, you stupid robot," I said. "It's all YOUR fault that two of our friends are dead."

"Uh, no," he said. "It's the fault of one of your bonehead friends."

I did not acknowledge that comment. "We are all going to get out of here. But before we do, I'm going to tear you apart piece by piece," I said.

"Rin-chan's _kowai_," said Neko.

"Shut UP," I responded angrily.

"Nya ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Hanneko's laugh was stupidly sinister. "I'd like to see you try. In case you haven't realized yet, I'm the second most powerful being in this school. Well, later you hapless bastards! Step back on the logo if you want to leave the courtroom~"

The logo had already started lifting as he said this. Everyone tried to hop back on, and almost everyone made it. The only one who couldn't reach it in time was Neko.

"Minnya-san! Please wait for me!"

It was too late. I tried to ignore her cries. All I could think about was how much I wanted to destroy Hanneko and get out of this fucking school.


	4. Chapter Two: Play Work

Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.

-Irvin D. Yalom

Once we got back to the gym, I ran straight to my room. None of this was fair! None of it, none of it, none of it! Shinobu Murai and Kenzo Tsukuru are both dead, Tobiki is broken inside, and a group of teenagers had to condemn a friend to death just to save their own lives.

"GAAAH!" I punched a metal plate. I probably should have looked to see what I was hitting since it wound up hurting really freaking badly. My hand went numb for a second. Someone knocked on my door. My visitor quickly defeated the purpose of doing so since he opened the door a few seconds later.

"Glasses guy," I said. He gave me an irritated look.

"I'm pretty sure you already know most of our names by now. 'Glasses guy' is clearly an improper moniker in my case," he said.

"Not really. You're the only one here that wears glasses, and I don't remember your name, so…"

"Ugh. It's Tougo Hanai. Please remember it, it can't be that hard," he said. "Anyway, for the real reason behind my visit. I…" He hesitated.

"Yeah...?" I prompted him.

"I… came to see if you were okay. Don't take that the wrong way, the girls suggested I check up on you," he said hastily.

"If that's the case, why not send Mouse girl? It shouldn't have been that hard to figure out that I'm closer to her than to you," I said. He gave me another irritated look.

"She's with Wakabayashi-kun. And if you're such close friends, why don't you call her by her given name? Or even her surname?"

"I dunno. I guess that's just one of my character flaws," I said. "Anyway, I'm fine."

"Uh, you don't look fine," he said as he looked at my hand. God damn it! It's started swelling.

"Anyway, why did you really come here if you're not truly interested in how I'm doing?"

"Heh, you catch on quick. The 'checking up on you' thing is what we needed Hanneko to hear." He stepped closer to me and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm _really_ really here to tell you that your little outburst in the courtroom didn't fall on deaf ears. You pretty much stated what everyone else was too scared to say. For that, we've decided to give you our full support. Well, the majority of us do," he explained. I didn't worry too much about that "majority" comment.

"So, I'm guessing there's more you're interested in telling me," I said.

He smirked and pushed his glasses back up on his face. "Yes, I do. But not now. It's getting late, and I need to do a bit more research," he said. "One last thing. Ido-san's having a meeting tomorrow morning after Hanneko makes his announcement."

"Announcement? He never said anything about morning announcements."

"It was mentioned in the handbook. Did you even regard it?"

"Uh… no."

"Well, you should. It may be helpful for you." He left without another word.

Finally. It was getting a bit uncomfortable having that guy in my room. I'd actually forgotten about the handbook. Oh, well. I'll check it out tomorrow. I'm really tired right now. A bell rang.

"Excuse me, may I have your attention? It is now 10:00. Nighttime has commenced. I recommend not going out if you want to prolong your miserable lives, but that's your choice in the end. Good night~"

Ugh. That was just as uncomfortable as Tougo's visit. Tougo? God damn it, I remembered his name. Oh, well. That's the least of my worries now. It didn't take long before I was fast asleep.

_Fire. Smoke. Blood. The world is burning before my eyes. Tall structures are collapsing. Men in strange masks are destroying things with sledgehammers…. Where am I? The burning signs seem to be in Japanese, but I don't recognize anything in this scenario… And yet, it's extremely familiar. I'm feeling a disgusting sort of nostalgia. Am I… enjoying this?_

_ "U pu pu pu! U pu pu pu pua a ha ha HA HA HA! It's so wonderful! Look, Onee-chan. You can practically see the despair in the faces of these people!" A girl. She couldn't be much older than me, judging from her side profile. She had an oddly familiar blonde color to her hair and a decent sense of fashion. It worked on her, but it's not really my style—what the fuck am I blabbering about? And what the fuck was she blabbering about? And how can she see the expressions of people wearing some creepy bear masks? In an odd way, they kinda reminded me of Hanneko…_

_ And… was she calling me Onee-chan? I think I'd remember having a little sister that was so different from me…_

_ "Oh, you don't agree?" She turned to me as if she expected some sort of answer. I could see that she was holding a stuffed bear toy. Its face looked like the masks on these people._

"_Oh, well. That's too bad," she said, which snapped me out of my reverie… A reverie within a dream? She continued talking. "It's fine if you disagree, Onee-chan. I can help you find a new source of despair!" Before I realized what she could possibly mean by that, I felt sharp pains in… everywhere… Black blades covered in pink dominated my sight, and I fell down. "You'll be gone soon, but don't worry! I will bring about enough despair for the both of us! Good riddance, hideous brute," she said to me as she began to step on my face._

"AAAAGH!" I woke up in a cold sweat. What _was_ that? It was horrible. I felt like I was watching the world crumble at my feet…

_Chuchu! Chuchu! Chuchu!_ My ElectroID. What a strange tone. It sounded kinda like… mouse squeaks…

I turned it on. I had a message from Nezumi. It asked if I could meet her by Kenzo's room if I was still awake. She sent it about thirty minutes ago… She might not still be there, but it couldn't hurt to check. I got out of bed and put on my daily clothes. This shouldn't take too long.

I made my way around the corner of the hallway. One door had Tobiki's face on it. I stupidly assumed Kenzo's would be next to it. Oddly enough, it was. I approached his door and knocked. I was greeted by Tobiki.

"Wakabayashi-kun? I didn't know you'd be here," I said. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said. I didn't believe him for a second.

"Uh… Okay. Is Nezumi here?"

"Oh, right. Sorry," he said. He seemed to be lost in thought for a while. "Come in."

I walked into Kenzo's room. We've only been here for a day, but the walls were already lined with pictures of schematics and designs for buildings.

"Those were designed by Kenzo," said Tobiki.

"Oh! I didn't know he designed buildings, too," I said. Tobiki nodded.

"Yeah. I didn't realize he had such a talent for architecture before," said Tobiki.

"Oh. Well, I guess you must have influenced him quite a bit," I said. Still, these ideas were just as unusual as Tobiki's, but they had a different style to them…

"Hey, how long have you been there, Rin-chan?" Nezumi's voice. She was sitting on Kenzo's bed. She greeted me jovially for someone who was crying her eyes out earlier…

"Hi," I said. "So, is there a reason why you asked me to come here?"

"Of course," said Nezumi. She handed me Kenzo's ElectroID. "Open it up," she said. I sat on the bed and tried to get it to start up. Once it did, it displayed an icon that was obviously designed to look like Kenzo. The icon name was "Dying Message: Kenzo Tsukuru." Naturally, I wanted to know what it was all about, so I opened it. A hologram appeared in the shape of Kenzo…

"Yo," said the hologram. "I am Kenzo Tsukuru. Please give me your name." It sounds so robotic…

"Rin Nakauchi," I stated. I was unsure of what would happen next.

"Oh, Nakauchi-san," it said. It mimicked Kenzo's deep voice. "I suppose the other two invited you," he said.

"Uh… yeah…" This didn't make sense. This hologram seemed to be acting just like Kenzo… Well, maybe a bit wordier, but it was still too much like him.

"I only have a few more moments to speak. After time is up, I restart from the beginning," it said.

"I… wha?" I turned to Nezumi for an explanation.

"Later, later," she said.

"The reason why I exist is to apologize to Wakabayashi-kun," he said.

He continued. "I want Wakabayashi-kun to know that I'm sorry for my deplorable actions. Trying to kill you was a horrible action, which I deeply regret. I have a few confessions to make. I've always been jealous of Wakabayashi-kun's designing skills and the support he had. I wanted to create ideas that could be translated into real life, but it wasn't a venture for which I was recognized. I was seen as a big, hulking mass of muscle by many, so I had to resort to the next best thing: building structures. I found a false solace in that. Still, Wakabayashi-kun's skills overshadowed mine. My parents would say thinks like 'anyone could build things, but it takes true talent to conceive ideas like these' when seeing what Wakabayashi-kun had come up with.

When this hell offered an opportunity to escape, I tried to take it like a desperate fool. If I could become the sole survivor and escapee, maybe then I could pursue what I loved without Wakabayashi-kun's talents overshadowing mine. In addition, who would suspect the best friend who deeply treasured their friendship to be the killer? Evil thoughts like those dominated my mind until right before my death. I know this is cliché, but it hurt me more than it hurt him. I realized what a monster I had become in that theater, while holding Wakabayashi-kun's hair in my hands. Seeing him on the verge of tears helped snap me out of it. Unfortunately, as I began to change my mind, I was knocked out. I must have been, since that's the last thing I remember."

Wow. Kenzo's pretty fucked up.

"Wakabayashi-kun, are you still there? If so," he continued, "I deeply regret my decision to try to kill you. I hope you don't believe it's only because it led to my downfall. You're like my little brother, and I want you to live a long, happy life. Hopefully our time together will only be a small portion of it."

Tobiki had started crying at this point. "Ken-kun," he said calmly. "I'm sorry for not realizing you felt this way before. I just want you to know that I would have gladly given my life to let you escape. But," he looked at me and Nezumi. "I couldn't give the lives of everyone else here for solely your sake. I'm sorry," he said.

"Stop apologizing! I have a few more requests: live a long and happy life, get taller, fall in love, create the best buildings in existence, and forget about that bastard who tried to take that from you." He appears to have finished.

"I'll never forget my best friend," Tobiki whispered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. I can't take this sappy shit anymore. "How do we even know he's telling his true intentions?" I highly doubted Kenzo regretted his decision, to be blatantly honest.

"What reason would I have to lie? To preserve a legacy that ended here today? If I'm dead, what''ll I care what people thought of me? I want my true intentions to be clear to Wakabayashi-kun," said the hologram. I still didn't trust that, but Tobiki and Nezumi seemed to be.

"Wait," Nezumi said. "Do you have more time before you sign off?"

"I do," he said.

"Good, I have a question. Can we show you to everyone at Kotaka's meeting tomorrow morning?"

"Uh… I'll leave that up to Wakabayashi-kun to decide," he said.

Now that she mentioned it, I have some questions as well.

"Hey," I said. "Why do you even exist?"

"Uh… I'm an artificial intelligence programmed into Kenzo Tsukuru's ElectroID," he said. Back to the robot voice. "I adopted the look and mannerisms of the owner of the device."

"Artificial intelligence? Well, you didn't do too good a job at adopting Kenzo's personality," I said.

"Actually… he's startlingly like Ken-kun. Ken-kun didn't talk much around others, but he spoke very much around me and our families," said Tobiki.

"Oh…" Well, now I feel like an ass.

"Please forgive Rin-chan, Tsukuru-kun. Xe's probably still mad from earlier," said Nezumi.

"Xe?" What?

"Yeah," she said. "I still don't know your gender, so just calling you 'xe' is the easiest thing to do now, Rin-chan," said Nezumi. I sighed.

"I have another question," I said. "How did you manage to adopt his personality traits?"

"It takes a minimum of one week for an ElectroID AI to gain an idea of the user's idiosyn –" began the hologram. It soon cut off.

"What? That makes no sense," said Nezumi. She was right. Kenzo couldn't have had the ElectroID for more than a day. Hell, it wasn't even a day. How did it manage to recreate him without the minimum amount of information? I began to wonder these things, but as I did, I realized I was drifting off to sleep…

_Riiiing._ "Excuse me, may I have your attention? It is nyao 7:00, meaning it's morning time! Let's give it our all again today, nya~"

Gah… that must be the morning announcement glasses-guy mentioned. "Rin-chan? Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty! It's almost time for Taka-chan's meeting!" Ugh, did I fall asleep in Kenzo's room? That's going to be uncomfortable. I'm not too fond of the idea of sleeping in a dead man's room… Anyway, after I opened my eyes, I saw Nezumi and Tobiki standing over me. I presume they were attempting to wake me.

"Uh… bleh." I yawned. "Were you guys here the whole time?"

"Nah. My room is across the hall, and Tobiki's is right next door. I just came to see if Rin-chan woke up yet," said Nezumi. "I got some clothes for you!"

I looked to see what was lain out on the bed. There were a few t-shirts, but only two options for bottoms: one pair of pants and a skirt. I'm starting to wonder if this is some kind of test…

"Gee, thanks, Mouse girl," I said. "Buuut… I still need to take a shower and brush my teeth. I don't feel comfortable using someone else's bathroom, so I'll just go to my room," I say. Before she can voice her inevitable complaints about trying to figure out my gender, I run out of the room. It's still pretty funny making her mad about that.

I arrived at my room and began to get ready for the day. I decided to wear a t-shirt and jeans, like I did yesterday. I checked my ElectroID. It was 8:15. I started getting ready at about 8:05, so that's a new personal best.

It looked like I was the last to arrive at the cafeteria. The Super High School Level Politician, Kotaka Ido, had already begun the meeting.

"And, in addition to figuring out how that cat is working, we need to—," said Kotaka, but she was interrupted.

"Hey, who decided you would be the leader behind this, anyway?" A dissenting voice came from Ying.

"Well, considering I've been admitted to this school specifically for my talents in leading groups of people to achieving common goals, I figured I'd probably be the best person to lead the group," said Kotaka. "Ah, Nakauchi has arrived."

"Hey, why not have Nakacchi lead us?" Ying asked this.

"Uh," I said. "I'd rather not be the leader in this, to be honest."

"Yeah, for once, I agree with the hikikomori. It would probably not make a very good leader," said Alice. It?

"Don't call Rin-chan an _it_! It's rude," said Nezumi.

"No, what's rude is slamming doors into people," retorted Alice.

I was prepared to make a remark, but Bunpei beat me to it. "Hey, calm it! Stop being so rude to Rin-chama!"

"Chama?"

"Yeah. It's a mix of 'chan' and 'sama'," explained Bunpei.

"Uh, can you even tell what Rin is? No offense, Rin, but Tougo told me that 'chan' is a kinda feminine suffix," said Jay.

"Uh…" I said. What is going on? Is the issue of my gender really a cause for such debate?

"Anyway, back to the leadership issue. Since Nakacchi doesn't want to lead, I propose we nominate Sugicchi," said Ying. "He's a billion times nicer than you, and he's actually tried to make friends with us instead of boss us around."

"Hey, you shouldn't be so mean to Ido-san," said Yasushi.

"See? He's even being nice to you—"

"Uhm, guys," whispered Ko. "Breakfast is ready…"

"Um, did she cook asagohan for all of us? If so, how do we know we can trust her cooking? She could have poisoned it," said Neko.

"Uh, I can vouch for her, since I went and helped cook a while ago," said Ying.

"But isn't that just vouching for yourself?" Glasses guy this time.

"I don't think Ko-chan would try to poison us," said Tamaki.

"I agree," said Yasushi. "Without trust, we'll eventually fall to ruin."

"We may fall to ruin _with _trust," said a girl with coke-bottle glasses and braided black twintails. Who was she? "Don't you remember what just happened last night with Tan Blonde and Short Friend?"

"Another one who doesn't know anyone's name," said Glasses guy. After this comment, the room pretty much erupted in arguments everywhere. Well, Tobiki and Ko didn't participate. Both just looked sad.

"ENOOOOOOOOUGH!" Ko yelled. She managed to get everyone's attention with that one.

"Uh…" she said. "If you guys are worried about breakfast, then I'll go first and get a bit of everything to try out to prove that it's not poisoned. Please come get something to eat, everyone…" Her voice just got lower and lower the more she spoke. That yell probably took a lot out of her.

We all followed Ko into the kitchen. I felt kinda sorry for her. She only wants to be comfortable around these people, but quite a few of them turned on her. Must be taxing.

She went to the cabinet first to pick up her plate. She picked the second one down.

"Hey," said Tobiki. "Why didn't you take the plate on top?"

"Oh, it's a habit," whispered Ko. After this, we each fixed our own food and went back to the cafeteria. Kotaka continued to speak, but Hanneko arrived.

"Enjoying your breakfast, you bastards?"

"AAAGH! HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!" He managed to startle coke-bottle glasses girl. Her voice began to sound kinda foreign after that…

"That's not important. I just came to remind you that you all have a play to put on! It's Tuesday, and you're premiering the play on Friday," he said. "I hope you all can get it done on time~" With that, he left. I had completely forgotten about that fucking play.

Breakfast was uneventful beyond that point. Tobiki let Nezumi play Kenzo's dying message, and the crowd had mixed reactions. A depressing quiet fell on the crowd at that point. It wasn't until we arrived at the theater that anyone decided to start any conversation. I mainly walked around visiting the different groups. This time was meant to double as free time, so we were free to do what we wanted. Most of them chose to do stuff for the play. I spoke to Ko and Tamaki when visiting the costume department (while Alice ignored me), and I spoke to Ying after Glasses guy pulled me over to "Stop being dead weight" and help them. My goofing off with Ying pissed him off enough to force me to leave and do something else.

I walked around the booth at the top of the theater, too. Hehe, I managed to waste my entire day trying to make some friends (I think) before getting there. I wound up walking in on Kotaka and Yasushi.

"Anyway, I didn't need you to try to stick up for me," said Kotaka.

"Well, sorry, it's kinda in my nature. While I can't say that I agree with your style of leadership, I don't like seeing people try to tear each other down like that," countered Yasushi.

"I don't need your help, anyway!"

"How could you possibly not need help? Even the best politicians needed help."

"Simple: I'm better than they are."

"Or there's less you actually need to be responsible for."

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all, Ido-san."

"Anyway, quit trying to take jabs at me! All you've done is 'make friends,' and look what a whole hell of a lot of good having friendships has done."

"Are you saying that Kenzo's murder came about because some of us were trying to be nice?"

"I'm saying that we don't need friendship here. We need leadership."

"Haha! You're adorable when you try to sound serious."

I couldn't tell if Kotaka was blushing or really mad. "You condescending—" she began, but then she noticed that I was there.

"Na-Na-Na… How long have you been there?!" Kotaka looked surprised and embarrassed.

"Hey, Nakauchi-san! I don't think I've had the chance to talk to you before," said Yasushi. He was significantly less embarrassed than Kotaka.

"Uh… Yeah, hi," I said.

"Nakauchi! You can help resolve this," said Kotaka.

"Hm… you mean you want Nakauchi-san to exercise diplomacy, Ido-san?" Yasushi seemed to be having fun messing with Kotaka.

"Shut up," replied Kotaka.

"Uh… Anyway, I'm not sure how I'd be of any help," I said.

"Nonsense! A third party opinion may be just what we need," said Yasushi. "So, the issue here is with how Ido-san leads. While I have confidence in her leadership skills, she's way too aggressive and doesn't listen much to the opinions of others."

"Hey, are you trying to kiss up or piss me off?"

"Anyway, I'm trying to see if I can convince her that we need to be able to effectively communicate with our peers in order to combat this problem. Diplomacy would be our best option here."

"Uh…" I began. "I guess maybe Yasushi has a point here. A politician is a leader, but that doesn't mean you need to take on every burden, Ido-san. Maybe having two leaders would be better, and would probably stop this quarreling," I said. I tried to sound serious, but that speech seems more cheesy than anything now that I look back on it.

"But I don't _need_ anyone else to lead with me," said Kotaka. "I've helped resolve issues on a national scale before, so I'm pretty sure I can do this on my own."

"Then…" This girl is being impossible… "How about having someone lead under you?"

"Yeah, like me! I could be your second in command," said Yasushi.

"Grrr… Fine. I guess you do have a point, Nakauchi," said Kotaka. She turned to Yasushi. "Just remember, Sugihara, you are _under_ me, not the same level as me."

"I'm fine with that as long as progress can be made," said Yasushi. "Now, first order of business: you need to be nicer to people."

Kotaka then punched Yasushi in the shoulder, and he staggered over slightly. "I'm not one to be bossed around. Remember that you're under me," she said. Um… What? He just regained his balance and laughed.

"Haha! It's a good thing we have such a strong leader," said Yasushi. I didn't realize they'd become so close. Either that, or Yasushi is a masochist... "You know what you should do," he continued.

"Hmph. It's not good to annoy your leader," she said as she took out her ElectroID. "Nakauchi," she began. "Are you a boy or girl?"

"Not telling. Sorry, but I can't play favorites here," I said.

"Fine," she said. "You can go now."

I immediately took the invitation. She was rude, but it doesn't seem like she was trying to be mean. Unlike Alice, anyway. I wandered back to the dorms. I hadn't realized how late it had gotten. We had a little over three hours until nighttime. I was about to turn the corner when I accidentally ran into someone (again).

"Ah! Rin-chan!" It didn't take long to guess who it was. "Did you hear about the slumber party?"

"What? What slumber party?"

"Taka-chan invited all the girls to a slumber party," she said. "Did you get invited?"

"Yeah, no," I said. "I declined telling her what I was as she was inviting people, I assume."

"Boo! Rin-chan, why are you so mean?!"

"Anyway, have fun, Mouse girl," I said as I walked away. I ignored her protests and went back to my room. There was still time until Hanneko's nighttime announcement, but I was really tired. I got in bed and hoped that I wouldn't have another one of those nightmares.


	5. Chapter Two: Nothing to Do with Macbeth

**Author's Note: Hi, readers! I'm sorry, but I was not able to upload a chapter last week since I was caught in a bad situation with snow and became stuck in traffic for hours. Oh, well, c'est la vie. Anyway, to make up for it, here is the second of two chapters I decided to upload today! Next week might just consist of free time events, but they definitely won't be a waste of time if you're planning to investigate…**

** Also, I probably should have written this earlier, but this story will contain spoilers from both games. I don't think any major spoilers have been written so far (except for the dream sequence), but I'll try not to make them so obvious in the future (well, until the last few chapters. If you haven't finished the first game or anime, avoid those like the plague when they come out). Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far, and I hope you enjoy the future chapters~**

**PS: I'm still not entirely sure what Rin is myself, but I've got an idea of how I want the issue to turn out… hehehe :3 Please leave a review if you think there's something I could be doing better!**

There's no such thing as perfect writing, just as there's no such thing as perfect despair.

-Haruki Murakami

_Knock. Knock. Knock._ Ugh. I woke up to the sound of knocking at my door. Before I could get up to answer it, my ElectroID went off. _Tienes un mensaje. Tu as d'um message. Messeeji wo motte iru. You have a message._ The tone went off in a few more languages before I stopped it. I soon realized it was a waste of time as the person who sent the message was standing outside my door. I opened the door and in walked Glasses.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting your slumber," he said in a mocking tone, as if he were completely aware of the fact that he was interrupting my sleep.

"Whatever. Whaddaya want, Glasses?"

"Don't call me that." He seemed to be slightly irritated at that. "Here," he said as he threw a binder at me. In one of the clear sheaths was a piece of paper with the words "Family Values" printed on it.

"Since I know you're going to ask a question with a very obvious answer, I'll just tell you now. It's the finished copy of the play. You're writing the program, so take a look at the dramatis personae and keep those names in mind," he said. What, is this guy also the Super High School Level Brainwave Interpreter? But I had more questions than that.

"Uh, yeah, thanks and all, but why don't you show this to the actors first?"

"Ugh. Most of the main actors are girls, and they're all at that sleepover. They're not letting any guys into any areas they've occupied, and they have the cafeteria, the bathhouse, and Kotaka's room. Her room is next to mine, and I haven't had a break from their incessant laughing since they left the bathhouse," he explained.

"This school has a bathhouse?"

"That's beside the point. But you would know about it if you didn't spend all your time locked in your room."

"Anyway, why not just knock and say that you have the script to show them?"

"Well… that is, I…" he started stammering and blushing. "I… didn't want to interrupt them…"

"Uh… What? They've all left the bathhouse, so they're probably in their pajamas now. It shouldn't be a problem, and this assignment is kinda important."

"Yeah, but, well… they're in Kotaka's room… And… I… Too intimate a setting… A girl's room… it's way too private, and I didn't want to intrude on their privacy."

Oh? This is going to be fun. "But Glasses, you've had no problem coming in my room while it's just us two…"

"Yeah, but you're not… Wait…" He began to blush again. "AAARGH! Stop messing with my head! Give me that," he snapped as he took the script back. "I'm going to find the set crew members." He then left quickly. Didn't take long to mess with him. I crawled back into bed with the hopes that I wouldn't be interrupted again.

"—Let's give it our all again today!"

Huh? It's morning again. I got out of bed and remembered that Kotaka's having another meeting around 8. Well, these announcements go off at 7, so I've got some time. I think I'll get a head start on breakfast.

I walked to the cafeteria. Some people were already there eating and discussing the play. I wasn't particularly interested, so I just went to the kitchen. Ko was in there cooking. Oddly enough, Ying and Kotaka were also there laughing together and standing arm in arm. Weren't those two bitter enemies yesterday?

"Icchi! Yesterday was so fun! Thanks for inviting me~" said Ying. Icchi?

"Yay~ I'm glad you had fun, Yin-cchi!" Is… is that really Kotaka? Yin-cchi? She's adopted Ying's nicknaming style?!

"Uh… Ko…" I trailed off.

"Yeah?"

"Did something happen at that sleepover yesterday?"

"Yeah… I'm not sure what, though…"

"It's because now we understand each other!" Ying explained this to us.

"Yeah. Ying arrived to the bathhouse first, so we had time to talk before everyone got here. I didn't want to at first, but somehow we wound up becoming friends," explained Kotaka.

"Uh… Okay…" I'm confused. This could be why I don't have many friends.

"Hey do you remember when—"

"Yes! Haha! That was so funny! Also when—"

"I _know_!"

I'm… more confused than I've ever been at this point. Oh, well. I got my food from Ko and left. I finished eating around the time Kotaka started the meeting.

"Alright," she said. "First, Karacchi made a discovery yesterday."

"Yes!" Nezumi stood up as if she were giving a presentation. She had some papers in her hands. "One of the doors that was locked previously has now been opened. It's to a hallway, and that hallway leads to a whole new building! It was awesome! It had a whole bunch of gyms and fields and courts and tracks and pools! It was like a huge athletic building!"

"Ah! Really! Nezumi-chan, you've visited Heaven and didn't take me with you?!" Bunpei didn't seem to get how that could be misinterpreted.

"Oh, yeah, Bun-kun is the athletics expert! I'm sorry, I meant to tell you first, but the sleepover news sidetracked me," said Nezumi.

"Aww. Two things I missed out on last night," said Bunpei.

"He tried to sneak into the bathhouse, in case you were wondering," said Glasses as he took his seat next to me. "Of course, I didn't participate in such perversion."

"Yeah, right," I said.

"Tougo-kun's not lying, actually," whispered Bunpei. "I tried to convince him to come with me, but he refused. Same with Tobiki-kun and Yasushi-kun. I was going to ask you, but it looked like you were asleep, and I didn't want to disturb you."

"Me? Are you sure that would have been a good idea? I mean, just because I wasn't there doesn't mean it's not possible that I'm a female," I said.

"Oh, no you don't," said Glasses. "Furuda, from now on, don't talk about genders around Nakauchi. It'll only confuse you."

"Ahem," said Kotaka. "If the three stooges over there are done discussing their sins, I'd like to continue. Furuda's escapades reminded me of another issue we need to discuss. To prevent more murders, I propose we each pick a partner and keep an eye out for them."

"So, we have to constantly be looking out for our partners?" Jay asked this.

"Yes, Jay-chan! But the Elec—"

"I call being Tamaki-chan's partner!"Alice shouted this, which irked Kotaka.

"Be quiet and listen," said Ying.

"Huh? Since when are you so eager to listen to Ido? I thought you hated her," said Alice.

"Alice-san, haven't you noticed how much nicer they've been to each other since the sleepover started?" Tamaki asked th—Wait, how would Tamaki know that?! He… probably hasn't told anyone else…

Tobiki looked confused. "Wait, why was Yanaihara-kun—"

"A-NY-WAY," shouted Kotaka. "Can we please get back to the discussion? Jay-chan, to answer your question, you will. But there's a setting on the ElectroIDs that allows you to see the locations of all the students in the school at all times and at any time. You guys will check in on each other periodically, and I think this may help prevent more murders from occurring," said Kotaka. She took command, but she seemed less hostile somehow. I guess Yasushi's ideas got through to her.

"That's a great idea! As should be expected from our wonderful leader," said Ying.

"I agree," said Yasushi. Okay, do these two freaking worship Kotaka or something? She must be that good…

"Alright! Pick your partners, and make sure you keep up with them," said Kotaka. Everyone started pairing off with each other. Agh, I always hated this kind of thing in school. I always wound up with ano—

"Rin-chan!"

"Rin-tan!"

"Naka— huh?" Three simultaneous calls of my name? Well, that'd probably be two and a half, but… wha?

It turns out the three voices were from Nezumi, Glasses, and… Neko? I could kinda understand Nezumi _maybe_, but Glasses and Neko? That's unusual.

"Uh…"

"Kotaka-tan! We seem to have an issue~" called Neko.

"Oh? What is it, Kawai?"

"It's Kawa_ii_. The last syllable in my name is prolonged. Anyway, it looks like three of us want to be Rin-tan's partner," she said. Dear God, I hope I'm not partnered with her.

"Uh… Actually, that'd be two," said Glasses as he walked off.

"Aww. Tocchan left," said Neko. "Oh, well."

"Uh… You guys… Actually, now that I think about it, letting you guys pick was probably not a good idea… Listen up!" Kotaka began to address the rest of the group. "I've decided to change this up a bit. Instead, you guys will pick randomly. Choosing friends could lead to more problems."

Everyone groaned collectively. "Yasushi, write seven of our names on separate small pieces of paper, and flip them over. Let the other seven pick one," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," he said as he proceeded to write seven of our names down.

"Seeing as that is all we have to discuss currently, you guys are dismissed to do whatever you please as long as it does not include harming anyone here," said Kotaka. I went back to the kitchen because, well, I got hungry again. Ko was there. Wait, did she even leave the cafeteria at all?

"Uh—Hi, Yamamoto-san," I said. I accidentally startled her.

"H-H-Hi! Sorry, but I wasn't expecting you! But, now that you're here, I have something to tell you," she said. Her voice was a whisper, but it seemed a bit louder now.

"Yeah?"

"Ying and I can help in preparations of concessions for the play!"

"Uh… That's interesting and all, but why are you telling me this?"

"That is… Politician-san asked me to help you with the booth."

"Booth? Don't tell me, I'm running concessions."

"Uh. Yeah… I'm sorry!" She then ran off. Oops. Didn't mean to come across as mad. Oh, well, I can't help it now. I left with some fruits, and wandered around the school for a while. I saw the bathhouse that Glasses mentioned. My ElectroID then went off. _Score! Goal! Match point! Touchdown! Homerun!_ I checked to see what it said, since I kinda guessed that it was Bunpei. He asked me to meet him in the props room with him, Tobiki, and Nezumi. Eh. I trusted these three, so I went without questioning it. Those three were there, just as Bunpei said.

"Yo, Rin-chama!"

"Hi, Rin-chan!"

"Nakauchi-san, hello!"

All of them greeted me, but Tobiki seemed happiest for some reason. I'm glad he's recovering well from the first trial. I walked around the props room with them.

"Hey, Rin-chama! Come check out this room!" Bunpei tried to get my attention as he showed me a door that was hidden by several large props. "It's a secret prop closet! It's got dangerous-looking things in it, but I've actually played with them all. They're all harmless," he said as he picked up a knife lying on the ground.

"See?" He then plunged the knife into his stomach and let out a small yell.

"Hahaha! Did I surprise you? Don't worry, all of the blades in here are soft-edged and retractable."

"You… have a very creepy sense of humor," I said. I talked more with Bunpei and the others about the play. He explained that the knives were actually props that they needed for this specific play. They made me build sets with them, but I actually had fun, so I'm not complaining. The rest of my free time for the day was pretty uneventful. Even so, I ended it feeling more confident that this play would be not as bad as I originally expected.

It's now Friday. Everyone around here has been freaking out about this play premiere. They've even made me dress in an all-black ensemble. I'm just in the hallway behind the theater, so I'm not sure why I have to dress like the set crew.

"Alright, everyone, get in your places," yelled Kotaka. "Nakacchi, you're in the hallway behind the theater. Do your best," she told me.

"Okay," I said. I walked through to the concessions booth. When I lifted the door, I encountered a huge line of people.

God. Damn. It. The play starts in fifteen minutes! There's no way I can serve all these people in that time! Oh, well, I had to try.

I survived. I'm pretty sure my thought process completely shut down in that time and I became like some sort of robot. Oh, well, I've got two customers left and three minutes to showtime.

"Hello! What would you two lovely ladies like to order?" Yasushi asked me to greet all the customers like this, and I found it close to impossible to say no. He asked so nicely, I knew I'd feel like a bad guy if I refused.

"Two popcorns, please," they said. Wait… These are two live humans! Gah, why didn't I think of this earlier?!

"Alright. But I have something to tell you," I said. "Lean in closer." They complied.

"Listen up. We've been trapped in this school. We can't find an entrance or an exit anywhere, and we're being forced to kill each other," I explained.

"That's interesting!" One of the girls exclaimed this.

"Is our popcorn ready?" The other girl.

What was with these two?! Maybe they don't believe me…

"Wait," I said. "Haven't you noticed that there are comparatively fewer students at this school? Or that none of us are in any sort of uniform?"

"Yeah, yeah, what about our popcorn?"

"What? Ugh, fine," I said dejectedly. I turned around to get it, but I saw Hanneko there instead.

"ACK! What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to warn you about not violating any rules."

"… Rules?"

"You still haven't read the rulebook, have you? Oh, well. I'll let you off with a warning this time, since it's not that big an issue, but read the rulebook! If you break another rule, I won't be so merciful!" Hanneko then leapt onto the counter and off into the hallway. Those two girls were gone, too. But how? I didn't hear any footsteps from them or anything. They didn't even get their popcorn… Anyway, something was seriously wrong with those two. What kind of people were they? They didn't notice anything off here? Come to think of it, how did all of these people even get in the school? The others searched, but they haven't found a single exit…

These thoughts bothered me for a while. Thirty minutes, in fact. It's getting closer to intermission time. Better start making popcorn again.

"AAAAAGH!" Oh! Such a loud scream! It caused chills to run down my spine. The voice sounded like it belonged to Irina, but that was too convincing a scream for me to just ignore. I ran backstage, and yet another horrible sight greeted me. Irina was crying and holding a bloodied knife in her hands, and Tamaki Yanaihara, the Super High School Level Costume Designer, was bleeding out center stage…


	6. Chapter Two: Free Time Events

The only real laughter comes from despair.

-Groucho Marx

**Neko-chan (after the partner assignments)**

"Aww. Neko-chan was really looking forward to being Rin-tan's partner," said Neko after Kotaka decided to have Yasushi help us pick our partners. Wait… Something's odd…

"YOU?! How did you get out of the courtroom?!" God, how dense can I get? It took me so long to realize that she wasn't on the elevator back to the gym, but she was here yesterday morning and this morning…

"Nya, Neko-chan just followed Hanneko out of the courtroom. Please don't yell in such a kowai voice, Rin-tan," she said. For some reason, that seemed suspicious to me. Really, there was nothing suspicious about it, but… I don't know. Maybe being in this place is making me paranoid.

"Okay, that makes sense… Sorry for yelling," I said. She got a stupid grin on her face.

"Aww, it sounds like Rin-tan's being a tsundere," she said. I take back that apology. As I was about to turn away, she tugged on my shirt.

"Ne, Rin-tan, can I talk to you about something?" Neko's tone changed. She seemed more serious, somehow.

"Sure," I said.

"Well… I just want to say that I can kinda empathize with you," she said. "I used to be made fun of for not having any 'real talents,' too, and it really hurt." I'm not sure what she's trying to achieve with this, but I fell like this will only end in me being pissed off.

She continued speaking. "Kids would make fun of me for only seeming to know about the latest anime or the latest rising idol or the latest new game, and they'd call me airheaded and lame. I never told them about myself, so they all thought of me as boring."

"Wow. That sucks," I said uninterestedly. She didn't pay much attention to my tone.

"It did suck," she said. "Then I went to a new school, and it only got worse. Especially since it seemed like everyone there had some sort of 'real' talent. For a long time, I didn't have any friends at school. But then I realized there was someone there like me! Well, I say she was like me, but she was actually much smarter and cooler. We became best friends and always stood together against those who thought of us as 'lame'! Looking back, those were really fun times!" She's started smiling. I didn't want to admit it, but seeing her smile made me feel somewhat happy for her.

"Well, I'm glad your story had a happy ending," I said. She just looked at me.

"Actually… I'm not sure it's really like that," she said sadly. "Ever since I got accepted into New Hope's Peak, she didn't talk to me. It's been years since we last spoke. To be honest, I think she's forgotten all about me," she said. Wow. That's actually kinda sad. I mean, I never had any consistent friends, but at least there were points when I had more than just one. I'm still confused about something, though…

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry it ended like that. But why are you telling me this…?"

"Nani? That's a good question," she said. She seemed to seriously consider her next answer.

"Neko-chan has no idea!" How could she have an answer like that sound so excited? In fact, it sounded almost happy…

"Wow. You really are a weirdo," I said.

"Hm… Maybe I'm telling Rin-tan so that Rin-tan will consider being my friend!" I… can't tell if I should take this girl seriously…

"Uh… okay…" I said hesitantly. I immediately regretted it.

"Yay! Arigatou, Rin-tan! Actually, I think I figured out why I told you," she said. "Truth is, you remind me a lot of her!"

"Oh. Uh… Thanks… I think…" God damn it.

"Kawai! Come over here and pick a name," said Kotaka commandingly.

"Alright, Kotaka-tan!" She then left. Thank goodness. I'm not sure how, but being around her exhausted me. I think I'll go to the kitchen and get some more food…

**Nezumi (when looking around in the Recreational Building)**

I realized one day that I hadn't visited the second building of the school yet. While passing by plenty of other rooms that I still have yet to see, I realized that Tougo (_that's_ his name!) was kinda right. I really don't get out much. But, really, in such a situation, that is to be understood. I really don't want to chance getting caught in a bad place at a bad time.

I walked through the tunnel hallway (which, for some reason, was lit with red lights) on the north-facing side of the building. When I walked through the other door, I was greeted with a brightly lit basketball court. It was similar to the basketball court in the basic gym of the main building, but it was so much bigger and it looked much more professional. The bleachers had seats for many more people as well. One end even had a rock wall. It seemed like an odd place for a rock wall considering this place probably held many sporting events at some point, but whatevs.

"Impressive, isn't it?" I heard a familiar voice call to me from the bleachers. I turned to see Nezumi walking towards me.

"Yeah, very," I yelled back. "I can't believe this is actually part of the school. I feel like I'm in a stadium for a professional team."

"Well, knowing that it was a Hope's Peak team, they probably were professional caliber," she said as she came closer to me.

"Ah! That reminds me, I need to talk to glasses about those conspiracy things he's heard," I said.

"Huh? Who's glasses?"

"Really? You've probably gone around and talked to everyone here. Plus, it's the only person stuck in this situation that wears glasses," I explained.

"Uh, Rin-chan, there are actually two people here that wear glasses," said Nezumi. Two? Now that she mentions it, that girl with the black pigtails also wears glasses… But who could she be? Nezumi? Nah, both of them were in the cafeteria this morning. Alice in a black wig? No, she was probably there, too… Oh, yeah, she had on a long burgundy wig earlier…

"Don't tell me, Irina also wears glasses?"

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner," she said jokingly. Wow. That girl didn't remind me at all of that beautiful model that I met on the first day here. Actually, that girl did have an accent at one point as well…

"If you ask her, it's because she says she may as well have everyone get used to her normal look," said Nezumi.

"Oh," I said. "Well, her normal look is really different from what I remember."

"Hehe, I'll be sure to tell her that," she said.

"So," I began, "you seem to be really good at making friends with these guys."

"Thanks! Some of my old friends used to tell me that I was very charismatic."

"Huh. I guess they're right. May I ask what your old friends were like?"

"Sure thing! Uh… they were all males that were slightly older than me."

Huh? She didn't seem like the type to have three male best friends. Especially not older ones.

She continued speaking. "The first of the guys that I met was a handsome blonde guy, hehe. His family and my family were actually very close for a long time, and we wound up working together a lot on projects. He was really good at physics and math and computer stuff, which I never really got. The second one was a brunet with glasses, and he actually used to hate girls for some reason, but we somehow ended up becoming friends. I think he used to attend New Hope's Peak as the Super High School Level Biologist when I was in middle school. The last guy I met was a cute guy with seafoam green hair. He was really good at things like athletics and martial arts, so I think Bun-kun and Nobu-kun would have liked to hang out with him. Oh, I seemed to have been rambling on about my friends a lot," she said.

"Hehe, nah, it's fine," I said. "Sounds like you really enjoyed them as your friends."

"Yeah, I did," she said. "But I'm glad I have the opportunity to make female friends here. Even when I wasn't with them, I still mostly hung out with guys. They always teased me about it, though," she said. She began to blush a bit.

"Ah, well, it still sounds like you have at least three good, lasting friendships," I said. "I'm kinda jealous."

"Don't be! Most of the people here are willing to be your friends, and I'm sure we'll all be really close friends still when we get out of here," she said. "Just try talking to everyone."

"Bleh, fine," I said. She seems really optimistic about us getting out of here alive. For her sake and everyone else's, I hoped we would, too.

As I turned to leave, she called back to me. "Actually, Rin-chan," she said. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess," I said.

"There is one person here that makes me fell kinda uneasy…"

"Really? Who?"

She looked around, then whispered in my ear. "Neko-chan, the blonde girl," she said. "I wound up having to be her partner…"

While she and I do share sentiments about her, I couldn't help but laugh. "Haha! Why, is it because of all of the cat themes about her?"

"N-N-No! And don't be so loud, we might be overheard," she stammered.

"Hehe, okay," I said. It was still pretty silly. Oh, well, I guess it's only natural for mice to feel uneasy around cats.

**Ying (while Tougo is writing the script)**

"Hey, Nakacchi! Wanna help me convince Hanacchi to make the story _interesting_?"

Ying called out to me as I walked around and visited the people working on stuff for the play. I decided to hang out with her for a while.

"So, what's Glasses trying to make the play about?"

"I'm not quite sure. He just said it was something serious and angsty," said Ying. "I'm not sure why there can't be a serious and angsty story in outer space, but whatever. Really, this just means less work for me~"

"That's how I'd see it," I said. "So, can I ask you a couple of things?"

"If it's about my measurements or my relationship status, sorry, but I'm not allowed to answer those! Most other stuff is fair game."

"Why would I want… Anyway, that's besides the point. You said you had a cellphone earlier, right?"

She took it out of her pocket and showed it to me. "Yep, but I can't call or text anyone if that's what you're wondering. There aren't any working signals around any part of the school, so it's pretty much just good for playing some games," she said as she handed it to me.

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why I got it. I don't have any relatives around here, so talking to anyone in China would just rack up the phone bills," she said. "But whatever! I'm fine with conforming to general societal ideas of teenagers! Having cool phones is one idea!"

Uh… I didn't really see it that way, but whatever floats her goat, I guess.

"But still…" I said. "If there's no signal, then how are we able to use our ElectroIDs to communicate?"

"That has a very simple answer, nya," said Hanneko. He somehow managed to sneak in between me and Ying.

"Hey! No one asked you," I said angrily.

"Aww. It seems like you all hate me, nya. First it was Miss Caraway, then I found out that Karafuto was terrified of me, and now you don't like to see me, nya?"

"Wha—no one likes seeing you! You're a constant reminder of this hellish situation!"

"Anyaway, the school has its own private network. No outside devices can access it at all. In fact, it shouldn't even register on her phone," said Hanneko.

"He's right! Wow, that's interesting! How does that—"

Before Ying could finish a third ridiculous statement, Hanneko left without a trace. Again.

"Oh, well. Hey, Hanacchi," said Ying. "How's that script coming?"

Glasses looked up at her with an annoyed expression. "It's going well, no thanks to you goofballs," said Glasses.

"What's it even about?" I asked this.

"Okay, call me nuts, but it's meant to be a psychological story about love and loss as well as a look into the mind of an insane person," he said proudly. "I can only hope I've done well enough. I may need to do more research on the subject."

" 'That doesn't answer my question' sounds like something Nakacchi would say!" Wow. I must be way too predictable, since that was exactly what I was going to say.

"Feh. Fine. It's about a girl that's constantly bullied by her family until, one day, she loses sanity and murders them all," he said calmly.

"That—THAT'S WAY TOO FUCKING VIOLENT!" It was a bit shocking. Still, I kinda wanted to see if he could pull off such a daring story. I looked over at Ying to see what she thought, but she went completely silent. She just stared downward in shock…. Oh, yeah! Ying did have a traumatic experience like that… She wound up being the only surviving member of her family on the camping trip that made her so well-known…

"Ying…?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine!" She gave a response as energetic as before. She seems fine with it, so I guess the story isn't too problematic for her…

"I'm… going to go to the library…" she got up and left.

"Oh, make sure to find a book on mentality," said Glasses. He must not know about her story at all…

Eh. After Ying left, I decided to leave as well. Well, I was told to by Glasses after he realized I was just being "useless," but I was planning to leave anyway. Maybe I'll go find Yasushi or Kotaka…

**Bunpei (one day when he is in the Recreational Building)**

"He shoots aaaaaaaaand… SCOOOOORES!" I walked in on Bunpei playing basketball one day. He somehow managed to make a shot from almost across the entire court.

"Hey, Rin-chama!" He noticed me and greeted me in his normal fashion. I kinda wondered about that honorific, though.

"Hey, Furuda-kun," I said. "Since I'm here, can I ask you something?"

"Sure! Anything as long as it doesn't involve book stuff," he said.

"Okay. Why do you call me 'Rin-chama'?"

"Why not? Rin's your name, and I told ya earlier that 'chama' is just me mixing 'chan' and 'sama'." He proceeded to shoot another three-point shot. Nothing but net.

"Yeah, I figured as much. But why use either of those suffixes?"

He stopped. "Well, Nezumi-chan kinda got me stuck on calling you Rin-chan before, but after the trial I changed it to Rin-chama."

"Why the trial?"

"Oh. I added that part to show that I respect you! After all, you acknowledged my suggestion about the stars in addition to doing other cool stuff!"

"Cool stuff?"

"Yeah! Like solving the mystery behind Kenzo-kun's murder! You totally saved all our asses there," he said. "Plus, you stood up to Hanneko. That's pretty much the ballsiest thing I've ever seen anyone do!"

"Oh… Well, thanks…" That was actually kinda embarrassing. Unfortunately, he noticed.

"Rin-chama, are you blushing?" He looked at me. "Ha ha ha! I didn't realize you were that kinda guy, Rin-chama!"

"W-what kind? How are you so certain I'm a guy at all? And I'M NOT BLUSHING," I said. Gah! What is this feeling!?

"Oh? Oh, right, Tougo-kun said you don't like to talk about genders, so forget I said anything," he said as he winked at me. I'm pretty sure that's not what Tougo meant, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to take this…

"So, ya know who ya got partnered up with?" Good. He's changing the subject.

"Nah, not yet."

"Oh. Well, I got partnered up with that cute Chinese girl! You could probably ask Yasushi who you're watching," said Bunpei. He seems to be a flirty type of guy. Huh. Maybe I'll have to ask him at some point how to do that…

"Yasushi and the others are checking out the pool upstairs, if you're wondering," he said. I took that as him wanting a bit more private time and said bye to him.

**Ko (one morning while Ko is making breakfast)**

"—Let's give it our all again today!"

Huh? Why do I keep waking up at this point in the announcement? And why do I feel so hungry? Well, whatever the reason, I decided to just go straight to the kitchen to get some food. I'll shower and brush my teeth after I've eaten.

I walked quickly to the cafeteria in my pajamas, somewhat hoping that I wouldn't get caught. I found my way to the kitchen and somehow managed to knock over some pots and pans.

"KYAAAA!" I heard a startled scream as I began to pick them up. I turned to see Ko standing there.

"Oh, it's just you, Hikikomori-san," she said. She seemed to become more relieved.

"Hey, Yamamoto-san," I said. "I—didn't realize you'd be here." I also didn't realize how silly I looked in my boxer shorts and t-shirt combo. Note to self: at least put on pants before leaving the room.

"Ah. Sorry for overreacting," she said. "And Politician-san's placed me and Ying on breakfast duty, so I'm always here early to make sure everything's on time," she said. I noticed that her voice has become a bit louder again.

"Oh, I see. Well, you've been doing a good job of making breakfast for us! I appreciate it very much," I said. Ko smiled brightly.

"Thank you very much," she said gratefully. "So… did you want to get something then go back to your room?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I still need to get ready for the morning meeting," I said. She picked up a plate from the cabinet.

"Alright! This stuff should be mostly ready, so I'll just fix some for you and let you go," she said.

"Oh, wow. Thanks," I said. "So, how did you end up on breakfast duty anyway?"

"Ah. Well, Politician-san says it's for the sake of consistency. She doesn't want too many different people working on breakfast since there's a lot that could go wrong, and she says she trusts me a lot. For the sake of keeping that trust, I come here and try to make a good meal for everybody!" She seems excited to have such a task. I couldn't help but feel happy for her when she puts it that way.

"That's good," I said.

"Unfortunately, I'm not really very good at making food look appealing," she said.

"Huh? The Super High School Level Makeup Artist has found something that she can't make look good? For shame," I said teasingly. She giggled.

"Hey, makeup isn't all about making people look good. The real effort goes into trying to make someone look bad in a good way," she said. "For example, say you want to create a demon monster. You can _not _just get some plastic horns and red face paint and expect a good outcome. No. You'll need to come up with designs, do some sculpting, painting, mixing…"

I somehow wound up zoning out while Ko was talking….

"Oh? I'm sorrryyyyyy," she whispered.

"Huh? What for?"

"I… I guess my makeup talk bored you…" Aww. Now I feel bad.

"No, no, it's fine, Yamamoto-san. I was just really admiring how passionate you guys are about what you all do," I said. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh. Thank goodness~" she smiled again. Just as I was about to ask another question, Ying Yanmei arrived.

"Yo, Yamacchi! How's it—" Ying began, and then she noticed me.

"… Nakacchi… Where are your pants?" Ying looked at me suspiciously, and I had become aware of the fact that I was here for about half an hour.

"Yeah… I'll just take my food and go," I said. Out of embarrassment, I tried not to look back towards the two girls.


	7. Chapter Two: Investigation and Trial

"Hello, you hapless bastards! One of your friends has been murdered by one of you jerks! Check your ElectroIDs in a couple of minutes. You will have a brief period of time for investigation. Good luck~!"

Hannneko's Corpse Discovery Announcement. Tamaki's bleeding has stopped, and he's lying on the stage in a pool of his own blood. I scream, but my voice isn't the only one. Alice is running over to Tamaki's side, and Tougo's over by Irina's. The audience is sitting in their seats, and I can barely make out some faces in the dark. They all look calm…

Wait. This audience is completely calm. Certainly they don't think this is part of the play.

I feel myself becoming angry. What the hell is wrong with these people?! They all just watched a child die, and they're sitting as if they're watching a performance!

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I'm yelling at the audience now. "A KID JUST FUCKING _DIED_! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?" They turn to look at me silently, then look back at the stage.

Suddenly, Hanneko jumps on the stage from the orchestra pit. "Nya ha ha!" He laughs his stupid laugh and flips a switch on a remote control that he shouldn't even be able to hold considering he has no fucking thumbs. The lights in the theater come on, and the audience completely disappears. Several confused phrases come from the other students.

"Nya ha ha! Beautiful! The despairing look on your faces is just _beautiful!_" He's spouting more nonsense than usual.

"What? WHAT?!" Jay starts yelling and looking more frantic than she did when working on the play. "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"

"Hahahahahaha! As _if_ I'd let actual people in this school! Haven't you figured out by now that there's no way in and only one way out? And that one way is _death_! Much like your poor faggot friend here—"

At this comment, Alice runs toward Hanneko and kicks him into the orchestra pit.

"Don't. You. _Dare_. Insult. Tamaki," said Alice. Of course, Hanneko jumps back up.

"I'm going to let you off with a warning, since I'm not ready to have you die just yet," says Hanneko. "Violence against the headmaster is against the rules, Miss Darlington."

Alice looks like she wants to say something, but then she just stands still and cries angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we get back to how Hanneko made all these people disappear?!" Bunpei came out from the curtains. He and the other backstage crew are dressed in black.

"Wait—Don't tell me—" began Tougo, but he was cut off.

"That's right, Hanyai. These people are NPCs!"

"NPC? Like something in a game?" This comes from Nezumi.

"Yep. In case most of you dipshits haven't figured it out yet, you are currently mentally in a game~" Hanneko explains.

"That—That makes no sense!" Kotaka yells this.

"Oh, but it does. You know that feeling of amazement you get whenever you walk in and see the theater? That's when your brains are mentally changing from the real world to this virtual reality!"

"But—That still makes no sense!" Bunpei yells this with a confused look on his face.

"Doesn't need to, kid. Point is your friend is dead—"

"Wait," said Tobiki. "If this is inside a game area, then anyone who died here—"

"Nice try, kid. But we're doing stuff Sword Art Online style here," said Hanneko. "Their brains are shocked, and they're killed in real life. You won't be seeing that meathead again outside of a refrigerator."

Tobiki looks downward and becomes very obviously upset. Nezumi tries to comfort him, but she's crying too much for it to be effective.

"OMG, SAO is one of my favorite older shows!" Only one person could have said something so stupid. Ying slaps her.

"Take this seriously! Yanacchi just got stabbed to death by Irina," she said to Neko. "This isn't a game!"

"But it is," said Hanneko.

"I swear to god, I will destroy you," said Jay. No one's really fond of Hanneko, but Jay was obviously the most hateful toward him, so I wouldn't be surprised if she were to act on this.

"Um… that brings up another point…" said Ko quietly.

What point?

"I know exactly what she means," said Alice. Most of the tears have left her face, which is pink with anger (even under all her makeup). "There's no point in even doing an investigation. We saw that stupid slut kill Tamaki with our own eyes, so we may as well—"

Tougo gets up and slaps her. "Hypocrite," he says. "Don't insult another friend while telling someone not to insult Yanaihara." She begins to cry again, silently this time.

"Everyone, can we please stop assaulting each other? We still have to investigate, and fighting amongst ourselves will only lead to our demise," said Yasushi.

"But—"

"I have some explaining to do," said Hanneko. "Since this is way too freaking obvious, I'll rule the clever bastard who put the knife in with the props as the culprit. I can't just have you all vote on something so obvious, that's boring as hell. There's no suspense, and the ratings won't be as good. Miss Esperanza will just be seen as an accomplice, but who knows? She may have been the one who put the knife there." Ratings?

"Ay, Dios mío! Tienen que creerme, no lo hice! Por favor, no podría matar a nadie!" I have no actual idea what the hell Irina's saying, but I'm guessing she's pleading her case. She's very clearly shaken by this. I probably shouldn't just yet, but I don't believe she intended to kill anyone either.

"Está bien, amiga. Resolveremos que paso, relájate," said Tougo comfortingly. Irina calmed down a bit, but she was still visibly upset. When did they get so close? Anyway, I shouldn't think about that right now.

"In any case, you losers are wasting precious investigation time. Good luck~" said Hanneko before disappearing to god knows where.

"But how are we even supposed to investigate?" Nezumi asked this. "The only evidence we have so far is that the knives were replaced."

"How do we know they were replaced, Nezu-chan?" Neko asked this.

Nezumi looked slightly annoyed. "Don't call me that," she said. "And the remaining members of the set crew can attest to that. There's a room hidden in the prop shop that has fake weapons for scenes like—well, yeah."

"I've never heard of such a room," said Kotaka.

"That's because it's a secret. The only people who know about it are me, Bun-kun, Tobi-kun, and Rin-chan," said Nezumi.

"Then it's obvious that one of you did it! Fess up, lowlife!" Alice yelled at us. She seemed to look at me the most, though.

"Whoa, we can't say that for certain," said Bunpei.

"And just why not?" Ying this time.

"Because… Rin-chama, say something!" I sighed. Why would Bunpei throw me under the bus like that?

"Uh… Okay, for starters, we need to look at the knife," I say. That was the first thing that popped into my head, and I really wanted to get the attention away from me.

"It's just a typical knife," said Nezumi.

"Of course it's not, silly little mouse," said Alice. "It's the knife that killed Tamaki…"

"Um, Alice-san has a point… that knife's from the kitchen," said Ko. "I think it's part of a matching set…"

"But it looks exactly like the prop knives," said Tobiki. That cat bastard. He knew something like this was going to happen.

"I feel like that's no coincidence," I said. "I think Hanneko expected something like this to happen."

"Figures," said Jay.

"Well, should we split up for a while to cover more ground? There was evidence in other places last time, and this may be the case again," said Tougo.

"Okay, but should someone keep watch here?" Yasushi asked this.

"I can do so," Tougo replied quickly. "Furuda, stand watch with me." Bunpei agreed readily. But why Bunpei? I know Irina would probably not want to, and Bunpei's not really one for investigating… I guess I answered my own question there.

I left the stage to go to the props room. Everyone else pretty much dispersed. Neko and Jay went with Irina (probably to console her). Yasushi and Ko went to console Alice. Nezumi and Tobiki followed behind me.

We walked in the props room, and it was significantly messier than when I first saw it. Tools were lined with sawdust and paint was splattered everywhere.

"Let's investigate the weapon room," said Tobiki. We all walked toward the door hidden by boards. This room looks pretty much the same as when I entered it with Bunpei (minus the prop knife set that was used in the play). We looked around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"This is odd," I heard Nezumi say from across the room.

"How so?" Tobiki asked.

"This room looks pretty much the same. It even has all the same stuff except the knife set," said Nezumi. I think I see what she's getting at.

"You're trying to say that it's odd how there's nothing here that seems out of place? Not even the knife that should have been part of that set?"

"Yeah," she says. "It might be in the culprit's room!"

"Then we should go look in them," said Tobiki.

"Alright. If it's okay with you guys, I think I'll investigate somewhere else," I said. They both say it's fine, and we part ways after going back to the stage together. Tougo and Bunpei are both sitting by Tamaki's body.

"So, did you find anything? I'm sure Rin-chama—"

"Sorry, Furuda-kun, but so far we only noticed that the fake knife was missing," I said, cutting him off.

"So, you know where it is, right? Then you shouldn't need to go there," said Tougo.

"Yeah, Wakabayashi-kun and Mouse girl are going to search rooms," I said.

"That's not where it is," said Tougo assuredly. What?

"We're not dealing with an idiot here. If anyone kills, they'll put the most effort into not getting caught. They wouldn't be so dumb as to try to hide it in their room," said Tougo. I open my mouth to make a rebuttal, but then I realize he has a valid point.

Eh. It could still help investigations if we had someone searching rooms, so I don't mention anything to Tobiki and Nezumi yet. I run to where I think Tougo says the fake knife is. On my way there, I see Irina, Jay, and Neko sitting in the cafeteria.

"Daijoubu, Iririn! We'll find the hannin and clear your name! Anshin-shite!" There was Neko talking in that annoying way in which she talks. Iririn—I mean Irina just looked downward sadly. Even when she's sad, she's enviably gorgeous. No wonder Tougo probably likes her.

"Hey," I say to them. "Can I talk with Irina for a moment?" Irina looks up at the mention of her name, and Jay and Neko move to another table.

"Sí?" Irina looks at me questioningly. We've never really talked before this, I realized.

"Uh… so, you're not the culprit, right?" Smooth.

"Yes! I didn't know those knives were—I never got to use the props, so—"

"Wait," I say. "You guys never ran through the entire thing before the show?"

"No! Furthermore, I never knew about the secret room in the props room and—"

"Okay, calm down. It's harder to understand you when you talk fast in that accent."

"I'm sorry. My accent normally comes out when I'm scared or nervous," she says. That explains a lot.

I continue speaking. "So, you never got to rehearse with the knives?"

"No! During the rehearsals, the handsome blue-haired boy just told me to grab the closest one to me when we did the performance."

"What, you mean Glasses?"

"Yeah. He's also my partner for the classmate-watching thing. He can vouch for me," she said. I'm starting to feel weird pangs… Anyway, I have to ignore that. As much as I don't want to believe it (what the hell? Why should that bother me?), Tougo is starting to look more suspicious. He did last time as well, but why would he volunteer so readily to watch Tamaki? Plus, he did write the script and instruct Irina on which knife to grab.…

But if he did it, he wouldn't go to Irina's defense so quickly. If he were the culprit, he'd probably try to make her look even more suspicious.

I tell Irina thanks for the information, then decide to go to the kitchen like I intended. Ko, Kotaka, Ying, and Yasushi were all there.

"I'm sorry! I noticed one day that one knife was missing, but I saw it soon afterwards, so I thought nothing of it! This is all my fault," said Ko.

"No, it's not," said Kotaka. "You've done a good job managing the kitchen, don't worry." I'm starting to think Kotaka might have a bit of a soft spot for Ko.

"Hey, Icchi! Nakacchi's here," said Ying.

"Yeah, I'm here to see if the fake knife is—"

"Excuse me? Can I have your attention? Investigation time is soon coming to a close. Do any last-minute lookovers and meet me in the gymnasium. The class trial will start in twenty minutes. Thank nya for listening. Bye~"

Oh, crap! The trial's starting soon, and I barely had any evidence! Wow, how arrogant of me. The kitchen group, Tobiki, and Nezumi probably collected a lot of information as well. I'm not sure if Alice or the girls with Irina were able to do much, and I'm pretty sure Tougo and Bunpei just inspected the area they were confined to…

The twenty minutes pass faster than expected. I spent some of that time discussing with Yasushi, Kotaka, Ying, and Ko, but they didn't find much either. We all walked to the gym together, and Tougo and Bunpei showed up soon. Nezumi still wasn't here, so I used my ElectroID to see where she could be. I saw her name in a rectangular area inside the props room. Judging from the location, that must be the weapons room. It isn't labeled, for some reason.

"Ugh! Where is that slowpoke mouse? I'm ready to start the trial," said Hanneko. Appearing out of nowhere, as usual. I checked the ElectroID again, and her name was now in the hallway on the way to the gym. The room inside the props area has disappeared completely now. This is just getting more odd, but I make a mental note of it.

"I'm here," said a winded Nezumi as she ran towards the logo. She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath.

"Yo, Karacchi," said Ying as she tossed a water bottle from her bookbag towards Nezumi. "My first rule for survival is to always keep water with you, even if you might have access to water." I just noticed that Ying had a bookbag with her. Now that I realize it, I've never seen her without it…

"Thanks, Yin-chan," said Nezumi. Without warning, the logo descended. This is it. We're going into the courtroom now. I have close to no evidence, so I'm hoping for the best.

But of course, hope is useless here.

The courtroom now looks… odd. The walls have been painted sky blue, and the podia are now surrounded by columns that look like giant bones. Smaller bones branched off from them, and skulls were placed at the ends of each smaller bone. They looked like… bony trees of death. Wow, that was lame. But still, this was like a pretty morbid forest.

"So? Whatcha think? Fitting look?" What nonsense is Hanneko spouting now? This look doesn't fit at all…

"Yeah," said Tougo. I look at him questioningly, and he does that thing where he tells me the answer to the exact question I was thinking.

"One of the scenes in the play involves the main character running off into the forest while hiding from the police, and she begins to see the trees as bones," he says. Jesus Christ, what kind of fucked-up play was that?

"Anyway, stand by your podiums, we're about to start this," said Hanneko. I walk over to my podium and look at the others once I get settled. I notice the pictures in Shinobu's and Tamaki's places. Shinobu's X is the four-pointed star that helped solve the case, and Tamaki's picture is crossed out by a hand needle and a paintbrush.

"Alrighty! Everyone settled? Good! The class trial is now in session, and you all should know the rules by now, so I won't bother explaining. Fire away, and remember that your lives are on the line! Figure out who used poor Irinya in their scheme to escape this place!"

"Alright," said Kotaka commandingly. "Let's begin by discussing what we know."

Silence. It's broken by Bunpei after a couple of minutes.

"Aagh! Please don't say that you guys don't have any leads," said Bunpei.

"Well, not really. All we know is that the knife is from the kitchen and there's a hidden props room," said Yasushi.

"There's more than that," said Tougo. "Nakauchi, enlighten us."

Why do I have to do all the work? Oh, well. "Uh… The two knives were switched out, and I'm willing to bet that the fake knife is still in the kitchen," I said.

"Wait—so, if the knife's in the kitchen and it was switched out with the fake knife, then…" Nezumi trailed off.

"Yes, you're on the right track, Karafuto," said Tougo. "The culprit has to be someone who's been able to visit both the theater and the kitchen."

"Sugoi! That narrows it down to…" Neko thought for a moment, and a look of horror struck her face. "ALL OF US HAVE BEEN IN BOTH OF THOSE PLACES!"

"Not necessarily," said Jay. "Remember, the prop knives came from that secret room, and the only four people that confessed to having visited it are Rin, Nezumi, Tobiki, and Bunpei."

"So, one of those four did it," Alice accused. She was still glaring madly at me.

"You've got that wrong," I say. She looks almost offended that I'd challenge her.

"H-How?!"

"Okay, this is really leaving a lot up to chance, but remember that these ElectroIDs have maps showing real-time locations of all the students in the school no matter where they are," I began. "While we were each given partners, that in no way restricts you from seeing where anyone else is. There's a good chance that the culprit noticed the members of the set crew enter this room."

"But how would they know that the other room was there? Isn't it inside the props room itself?" Yasushi asked this. **(Silly Author's Note: I just noticed that the word "sushi" was in Yasushi's name, and it's somewhat amusing to me).**

"Yes, it is. This is where it's left up to chance. The room within the room only ever shows up when someone's inside it. A rectangular outline matching the shape of the room appears. At any other time, it's invisible and not labeled," I said.

"Aha! That narrows it back down to… possibly everyone," said Neko.

"No, it doesn't. Set crew," said Tougo. "When did you guys notice the secret room?"

"I found it late in the afternoon on Tuesday," said Bunpei.

"So, it was a while before _that_ happened," said Tougo.

"Before what happened?" asked Alice.

"I think I know," I said. "He means before we were assigned partners to watch."

"So, you're saying that the culprit could be anyone on the set crew, partnered with the set crew, Hikikomori-san, and whoever's partnered with Hikikomori-san?" Ko asks this.

"Honestly, I think those are the most likely people," I said. I knew I was grouped in that, but I was confident that I could prove that I wasn't the culprit.

"Wait," said Kotaka. "We're overlooking something that I think is very suspicious."

"What could that be, Icchi?" Ying spoke up.

"The play itself," she said. Tougo looked slightly shocked.

"How is it suspicious?"

"How is it _not_ suspicious? It's about a girl who murders her own freaking family. You're the one who wrote it—to be honest, it was obvious that Yin-cchi didn't contribute too much. You're the one who gave Iri-cchi the instruction to pick up the knife closest to her despite the fact that you're not even a director, and you were quickest to volunteer to watch Tama-cchi along with the most trusting and the least intelligent person here," said Kotaka. Even in this serious situation, she's using her Ying-inspired nicknames…

"Furuda-kun, aren't you offended?" Tobiki asked this.

"Nah, it's kinda true. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I do trust you guys! But starting an argument right now won't do any good, so we may as well wait until after the trial is over," said Bunpei. Despite what Kotaka says, Bunpei is intelligent for making such a decision.

"Anyway, all this makes me suspect Hanai even more. While I don't want to, he should probably be on the list of most suspect people," said Kotaka.

"That's fine," said Tougo. "But I can assure you that I never planned anything like this."

"How?"

"Well…" Tougo actually seems to be at a loss for words. That, or he's hiding something…

"It was me!"

Huh? A confession?

Irina spoke for the first time since I spoke to her. "I mean, I'm the reason for the play being so violent! I wanted to take on a new challenge with my acting, so I asked Tougo to create a character that was dark, psychotic, and slightly complex. I thought I'd want to try pulling something like that off, since I've only ever played the main girl in girly drama movies…"

Oh, so she does know his name. He's not "handsome blue-haired guy" anymore. Anyway, the entire courtroom seems to be in shock. I'm not sure if the others are taking that as a confession of guilt or not…

"So, we're back to this. Come on guys, the obvious answer is that this fucking whore killed Tamaki," said Alice. "We may as well vote—"

"Irina's not guilty," I said.

Alice looked at me. "What?"

"Irina's only ever been in the kitchen when everyone else was around, and she's never even been able to use the knives until the premiere of the play. That incident was the first time she even touched one, so she probably wouldn't have been able to feel any difference between the fake knife's handle and the regular knife's handle. The fake knives are incredibly realistic-looking," I said.

"That's true. We didn't have any props when we first ran through with the lines, and we had no time for another rehearsal," explained Yasushi.

"Okay, so now what? Are there any more clues?" Ko asked this.

"Hai! There's got to be more clues-desu!" Dear freaking god.

"Oh, really? Why don't you tell us what they are?" Nezumi seemed a bit hostile when asking this…

"The list of partners! Duh, silly baka-mouse!" Neko giggled and grinned after she made her statement. Nezumi looked increasingly more annoyed.

"Okay, you have a point. Does anyone know who was paired up with whom?" Nezumi looked around, then her gaze stopped at Yasushi.

"Oh, right, well—" Yasushi began, but he was cut off.

"Wait," said Tougo. "First, I want to ask some questions."

"Hey, don't go interrupting your vice leader," said Kotaka. She immediately placed her hands to her mouth and stopped talking. She looked embarrassed.

"Heh, thanks, but I don't mind," said Yasushi.

"Shut up," snapped Kotaka.

"Aww, Kotaka-tan's being tsundere!" Neko said this excitedly.

"Shut UP! Anyway, just continue with your question," said Kotaka.

"Wakabayashi, where was Ido on Wednesday morning after the meeting?" Huh? What did this have to do with anything?

"Uh, she stayed in the cafeteria with Ying for about an hour after the meeting ended," said Tobiki.

"Yes! She reminded me to check my partner using the ElectroID!"

"Irrelevant," said Tougo. "Neko—."

"Neko-_chan_—"

"Right. Can you tell me where Karafuto was late Wednesday afternoon?"

"Yeah! She and Rin-tan were in the gym!" Neko then smiled and gave a victory sign.

"Ying," said Tougo. "Where was Furuda on Thursday evening?"

"Oh, so now I can say something relevant? Anyway, when I checked the ElectroID, he was just in the theater with Karacchi and Wakabacchi. They didn't look suspicious, so I didn't check again that night," she said.

"Alright. Ko and Alice, who are your partners?" I still have no idea what he's trying to do.

"Tamaki was my partner," said Alice. "He never went in the kitchen when I wasn't around, so don't go accusing him of trying to execute himself!"

"I'm not," said Tougo.

"Uh… I was with Diplomat-san," said Ko.

"Alright, I thought so," said Tougo. He looked at Jay expectantly, and she looked back in shock as if she had a sort of realization…

"Miss Caraway," said Tougo. "Where was Nakauchi on Wednesday morning after the meeting?"

What? He used that time already… Jay looked at Kotaka slightly nervously, then she looked down. "I don't know," she said finally.

"What? Jay, you didn't know you were partnered with Rin, did you?" Kotaka asked this.

"I'm sorry! I forgot to check in and never got a chance to ask. I figured maybe someone checked in on everyone—probably one of the leaders— so I didn't bother to figure out," Jay admitted, much to her chagrin.

"What? Is she supposed to be a suspect now?" Alice again.

"Nope. In fact, in my humble opinion, she's cleared of suspicion," said Tougo.

"Okay," I decided to interject. "Can you please explain what the point behind all that was, Glasses?"

"I didn't pick Furuda to volunteer completely out of doubt. I wanted to see if he knew who was partnered with himself and the set crew, by any chance. Luckily, he did, and he told me that he and Nakauchi visited the secret weapons room on Wednesday after the meeting. This clears her, since she seemed to have no idea that the room existed beforehand, and I wanted to test and see if that was true as well as confirm who was partnered with whom," he explained. "By the way, I was partnered with Irina."

"So, currently Jay and Irina are no longer suspect," said Nezumi.

"Hey! That was way too chancy," said Jay.

"Well, do you want to be clear or not?" Bunpei asked this.

"So, two out of thirteen people probably didn't do it. Good job, guys," I said.

"Hey! Watch it. You've contributed close to nothing to this trial, _hikikomori_," said Alice.

"Well, I guess it's time to change that. I think I have an idea of who it was, too," I said. Listening to everyone speaking has helped me formulate a guess. Plus, the culprit may have made an unintentional slip…

"Nakauchi-san, are you sure? It won't do any good to accuse anyone outright," said Yasushi.

"Honestly… no, I'm not," I admit.

"Nakauchi probably is right, though. The culprit revealed quite a bit of information." Tougo came to my defense.

"Guys, don't keep us waiting! Tell us who did it," said Ying.

"Ying, you should have the best idea who did it," I said looking at her. She looked surprised.

"I—How should I know?!"

"Because my prime suspect is you, Ying Yanmei!"


	8. Chapter Two: Class Trial Conclusion

Hope is a waking dream.

-Aristotle

"Wh-what?!" Ying looked startled and confused. Maybe I have it wrong…

"Don't waver, Nakauchi," said Tougo.

"Actually… She admitted to having looked at the ElectroID to check in on her partner earlier, and by process of elimination, Bun-kun is the only person who hasn't been assigned to a partner," said Nezumi.

"Wait just a minute! There is not a shred of evidence that states that Ying could have done it," said Kotaka.

"Yeah! I couldn't have done it!" Ying defended herself.

"Hm… You're right…." I really had no proof.

"Actually, we may be able to do something~!" Neko chimed in again.

"And just what would that be?" Tobiki asked this.

"We could make a Venn Diagram! One circle could feature who all visited the kitchen, and the other could show who could have gone into the props room!" That's… actually kinda clever.

"But everyone's been in the kitchen at least once," said Tobiki.

"Then we'll look at those who had an opportunity to go when there weren't so many people," said Neko.

"I… I can tell… Politician-san, Athlete-kun, Hikikomori-san, and Ying all went in the kitchen," said Ko. "Oh, and so did I! These were all when I was the only other person around there…"

"How are we supposed to trust that? Surely she's been outside the cafeteria," said Ying.

"I can vouch for her. Whenever she wasn't working hard in the kitchen or with us, she was in her room," said Yasushi. "I've never seen her name in the props room location."

"Oh, so she's similar to Nakauchi-kun?" Irina spoke again.

"… I'm sorry! I just…" Ko trailed off.

"You like having your own little place? That's understandable," said Kotaka. It really wasn't…

"Anyway, that doesn't prove anything! Nakauchi could have taken the knife out of there just as easily! Plus, Nakauchi has no one to confirm anything," said Ying.

"I… Xe never walked by the knives… xe only visited once before everyone came in, which was when I was the only other person around, then Ying came, then… Aagh!" Ko seems to feel pressured. And there goes that stupid pronoun again.

"What about the sleepover? There was no one around Rin at that time. Xe could have taken the knife then," said Nezumi.

"Xe?"

"Actually…" I started, but didn't know how to end. I had no alibi for that time at all…

"Nakauchi and I were together," said Tougo.

"Aagh! Rin-tan, I didn't know you two had _that_ kind of relationship," said Neko.

"I-it's not like that!" Jeez, why was I getting so flustered?

"R-Right! I went to show Nakauchi the script, and before and after that, Nakauchi was sleeping," said Tougo. I could tell he was just as flustered as I was.

"Ah! Good, I didn't want to suspect Rin-chan," said Nezumi. She seemed relieved.

"That brings up another issue, though," said Jay. "Actually, two."

"What are they?" Bunpei asked this.

"Well, when could Ying have gotten the knife out of the kitchen? And if it was during the day, how would she have hidden it?"

"She has a point," said Ying. "It's not like I have anything to carry it in—"

"You've got that wrong!" I exclaimed.

"Huh?!"

"Ying, how often would you say that you leave your bookbag alone?"

"My- Oh…"

"Actually!" Ko yelled out. "I've asked her to leave her bookbag when we're in the kitchen. It would have been a problem if she knocked something over or it caught fire… So she's never had it in there after Tuesday morning…"

"Right! How else would I have carried a knife out? I was only ever in the kitchen when Ko was around! And she'd have heard it unzip if she were turned away from me," said Ying.

She's right… maybe I was wrong when I accused Ying. But if not her, then who could it have been?

"Actually, I have an idea."

Huh? I looked up to see who spoke. Nezumi had an uncertain look on her face, but she also looked resolved…

"As I toured the rec building one day, I came across Ying. In the basement of the building, there's a really clean hospital, probably to treat athletes who injured themselves. She was trying to bandage her stomach, so I offered to help. When I asked how she got her injury, she didn't want to talk about it… I just thought that meant she had it before and it reopened, but she could have hidden the knife in her shirt… I went to get the sign-in sheet as well, before coming here," said Nezumi. She then pulled out a folded piece of paper. It showed Ying's name (in katakana) and the time she arrived at the hospital. Wednesday, 2:24 p.m.

"I…" Ying trailed off. "I did get the injury beforehand. On a camping trip a little while before school—"

"That's a lie," said Kotaka. She looked like she might have started crying.

"Icchi? Wha—what do you mean?"

"Did you forget? We bathed together the night before we decided partners. At the slumber party," she said. "I didn't see a single scratch or wound on you—I even complimented you on how clear your skin was!"

"Oh, yeah… you did…"

"Guys," Yasushi said. "We still don't know enough. When could Ying have even had the chance to bring the knife to the props room?"

That's a good question.

"True. During the day, she's normally around people," said Bunpei.

"What's stopping her from going at night?" Kotaka looked accusingly at Ying still.

"The lights go out at ni—Ack!" Ying slipped up again.

"That's not entirely true," I said. "I've traveled during the nighttime, and the dorm hallway still had its red lights on."

"Right!" Ying jumped behind my statement, contradicting what she had said before.

"Hey, Hanneko," said Alice. "Are all the lights in the school left on at night?"

"Nope," he said. "The only lights I leave on are the ones in the dorm hallway and the ones that lead to the kitchen. Any other lights are off. Gotta save up on electric bills. Anyway, are you losers close to being done? I'm getting bored here."

"Not yet," said Nezumi.

"Exactly. There's no way I could travel in the dark with a knife safely, anyway," said Ying confidently.

"Oh, isn't there?" There's one noticeable trait about Ying that may prove that wrong.

"Ying, your title is that of Super High School Level Survivalist. I recently noticed that you carry a bookbag with you very frequently," I began.

"Y-yeah. So?" Ying's starting to look nervous.

"So, would it be too farfetched to say that your bookbag is full of survival equipment? Possibly things such as ropes, water, dried foods, or…" I paused to see if anyone would complete the thought, and Tobiki complied.

"… Flashlights?"

The rest of the students turned to look at her. Well, everyone except for Kotaka. She just looked downward with her eyes half-closed and her arms crossed.

"So, Ying. If you don't mind so terribly, can we see the inside of your bookbag?" Tougo looked at her challengingly. Ying then sighed.

"I… I give up," she whispered.

"What was that?" Kotaka's words were biting.

"You guys are right. I'm the one who replaced the knives in the kitchen and the weapons room. I'm the culprit in this case," she said. Kotaka's expression didn't change.

"But Ying… Why…?" Ko looked at her, sadness and confusion in her expression.

"Because… I want to forget…"

"Forget what?" Nezumi asked.

"She wants to forget what a horrible person she is, nya!" Hanneko spoke up excitedly.

"How was she a horrible person?" Kotaka asked this, surprisingly.

"I… Ying, don't tell me…" I read about her family in her book, but I don't believe _that_ could be true… Could it?

"Yep. You're right, no-talent. Ying Nyanmei murdered her entire family!" Hanneko explained.

Half the students gasped, but everyone had a shocked expression, including Ying. "H-how did you know—"

"Haven't you figured it out by now, toots? I know everything about you losers. I know all your secrets, all your weaknesses, and all your sins. Basically, I. Am. Your. God!" Nezumi's face looked horrified, but not in the same way as it was at Hanneko's reveal of Ying's secret.

"Ying! How could you?! Su familia!? Ay, como duermes a la noche sabiendo que—"

"Shut it, okay! I know already. I'm an evil, disgusting person with black blood for being able to live with myself. The truth is, I hated those people. My mother, who did nothing but abuse and criticize me for being noticeably heavier than I am now. My father, who turned a blind eye to everything my mom did and reprimanded me for not being as smart as my younger siblings, who they were the most proud to claim as their own. I hated them!

One day, when I was in middle school, my father and mother decided they wanted to go camping in Japan during a break. I'd about had it with these people at this point, and they explained to me several times that the camping trip was an attempt to help me 'slim down' and 'get fit,' so they had me doing all of their menial tasks and working. I wasn't nearly as stupid as they assumed me to be, as I decided to look up where we were camping. We were going to Aokigahara," she looked around to see who would recognize the name. I'm pretty sure most of us did.

"Oh, yeah! According to your book—which I _loved_, by the way—you were found there! Aokigahara, otherwise known as the Suicide Forest!" Neko held up a victory sign, probably for pointing out the notorious forest's nickname.

"Yep. Not very smart, if you ask me. But then, looking back, even I didn't know what would happen. We were a few days in, and we had just ended a hike. Around the top of that hill, they found a half-rotted corpse hanging from a tree. I wasn't fazed, as I expected something like that to happen. In a place with such a nickname, of course we'd run into a couple of corpses. As my sister, Xiaoli, turned around in shock, she accidentally ran into me and knocked me over. I fell down, and I was able to feign an ankle injury. Even then, when they thought my ankle was sprained, I was made to do work for them, but my dad decided to help find things like firewood, probably out of pity. While he went out one night, I discovered the Swiss Army knife my dad had hidden. While I knew it was probably there for defense against some large animal we may happen upon, I decided to use it for other purposes. My mother was out by a stream collecting water, since we somehow managed to run out. She wasn't expecting me to come out, so it was easiest to get her from behind.

Next, it was my siblings. Cheng decided to search for mom, since neither her nor dad had arrived yet. Xiaoli stayed in the tents. He saw mom and me, but soon afterwards he was dead, too. Unluckily for him, he tripped as he tried to run away. Both his wrists were slit, and I left him there to bleed on the ground. I returned to the tents and found Xiaoli asleep. I thought her death would be easy enough to make look like a suicide, since she had to take pills daily (for what, I never knew. They never told me anything). I shoved them all down her throat, but she choked to death.

Last, there was my dad. I had the most time to think that one through. In the end, I used a rope I found in the supplies and placed it where I figured he might enter. This, unfortunately, did not work immediately. He entered back from the south side, but the trap was in the west side. He told me that he found mom and Cheng by the river and began to worry about Xiaoli. He'd come to the center of the camping area now, and he noticed the bloodstains on my clothing. I ran out of there from the west side, jumping over my carefully placed rope, and crouched down to look for the end of it. Luckily for me, he stood right in the middle of the loop and faced me. I pulled the rope end I had over a slightly high up branch, and he fell and was knocked out. I had a rope, a high branch, and a vendetta against my unconscious father, so I don't think I need to say what happened next.

I was much calmer than any sane person would have been after murdering their immediate family, but this helped me properly dispose of evidence. I left the tents, but brought Cheng and mom's bodies back from the stream. I had to kick around some dirt to hide the blood on the ground, and I placed the army knife by Cheng. I then washed myself off by the stream and changed clothes after burying the bloodstained ones. I took a bag and everything I thought I'd need, then I walked in the opposite direction in an attempt to find my way out the forest. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't smart enough to pack a map, so I wandered around the area for months, occasionally seeing the rotting remains of those people. I had wandered toward one end of the forest, starving, weak, and wounded, and just when I was about to give up, an old man whose name I've forgotten (I think I just called him Hayacchi) found me. Turns out I wandered pretty close to the road we took to get to the forest.

I had no idea how to speak Japanese at the time, so he taught me, much like how one teaches a baby how to speak. I was able to learn quickly, and soon I became a popular topic on message boards and a popular guest for variety shows. Fortunately for me, no one ever found those bodies, and no one questioned why I was the only one to make it out alive. People really like to believe in miracles, huh?

Hayacchi gave me a cellphone and found me a place to stay, but he soon left me alone in this world. That old forgetful man didn't even put his phone number in my phone," she said, fighting back tears. I hate stories like this. I don't know if I should hate Ying for killing five people or feel sorry for her since she's known nothing but hatred and loneliness…

"Alright! It sounds like this discuss—" Hanneko began, but was interrupted by Jay.

"Wait! Ying, I still don't understand why ya did it," said Jay. She looked really upset.

"Because everything about this place reminds me of that! The lies, the deceit, the feeling that you can't trust anyone and you have no friends. The fact that I still had my fucking phone and the fact that Hanai wrote that horrible fucking play about an insane, bullied girl who killed her family, and all the fucking bones in this fucking courtroom! I wanted to get out of here! I'm sorryyyy…" At this point, Ying was in tears. Several others cried with her. Surprisingly, not Kotaka.

"Ying," she said. "You're so fucking stupid."

"Icchi… Why…"

"Because," began Kotaka. "_We_ saw you as a friend. We trusted you, you deceived us, and you treated us like obstacles. Killing someone is unforgivable, but why would you want to stoop lower and have even more blood on your hands?" Even when she was upset, Kotaka's voice was as commanding as ever.

Ying continued to cry. I couldn't really understand anything she was saying at this point.

"She says 'I'm sorry, everyone. I was stupid'," said Tougo.

"Okay, enough of this sappy bullshit," said Hanneko. "Are you bastards gonna vote or what?"

Our ballots were cast in front of us. The air suddenly felt heavier. After a few minutes, everyone had voted on the culprit.

"And… You all are… correct! Ying Yanmei was the one to put the fake knife in the weapons room!" Hanneko jumped out of his seat excitedly. "Now it's time for a Super Special—"

"Wait!" Ying interrupted again.

"I swear to me, you all need to stop interrupting me! Expect something to be added to the rulebook later!"

"Icchi," said Ying as she turned to Kotaka. "Thanks for being my friend. Mànzŏu, dàjiā. Take care, you guys," she said as she turned to us. "I hope you make it out alive."

"Alright, if you assholes are done, it's time to start Ying's punishment!" Hanneko pushed a button that opened some weird door, and he led Ying away through it. A screen appeared from some sort of hiding spot, and we all turned to look at it. Ying was lying down in a forest by a tent and a fire. On the opposite ends of the fire were five headstones. Ying opened her bag and found a gun. She looked surprised, which had me guessing that she hadn't originally placed it there. After she pulled in out, the ground in front of those headstones started rising, and Ying began to look scared. Five freaking hands began to come out of the ground. Ying got up and started running away. When it looked like she was far enough away from the zombies, she slowed down, but then a giant feline monster jumped out of the trees and in front of her. She pointed the gun at it, but when she pulled the trigger, all that came out was a small foam rod with a suction cup on it. While she freaked out and stared at the monster before her, the five zombies (oddly enough, one of them was wearing a really elaborate magical girl costume) came and pulled her into the shadows. Her screams and efforts to fight them off were futile, and tears and blood stained the ground where she was being pulled away. The feline monster then unzipped from its back to show Hanneko inside it, and the words "and she was never heard from again" appeared in cursive white letters before the screen faded to black...

"Whew! That was exhausting, let me tell you," said Hanneko after coming back. We were all too shocked to say anything. Alice and Kotaka both looked horrified.

"What?" asked Hanneko. "No outbursts about how much you hate me or how you're going to take me down? Nyahahaha! You kids are losing your edge. Oh, well. Step on the logo if you want to get back to the dorms. It's been a long day." The logo began lifting, and we all scrambled to find a place on it. Once we all arrived at the gym, we started going to our rooms one by one. As I walked to my room, I got a message. _For the people! For the people! For the people!_ Kotaka sent a message saying there'd be a meeting tomorrow morning at 8:00. I powered down the device and went to my room.


	9. Chapter Three: The Research Building

Despair wishes their hope diminishes.

-Sherina Gandia

Someone was knocking on my door. I was not yet asleep since nighttime hasn't started yet, so I went to open in without thinking. I wasn't surprised to find Tougo there, still in his normal blazer and slacks ensemble.

"Hey," he said. Something about him has changed.

"Yo. What now?"

He looked as if he was about to give a typical condescending remark, but then his facial expression changed. "I.." he began. "Thanks," he said as he looked away from me.

"For what?"

"Thanks for defending Irina," he said.

"Oh. That was nothing. Just trying to stay alive, heh," I said. I suddenly started to feel really awkward.

"Oh… Okay…" he said. We stayed like that for a while, him standing in my doorway and me leaning against the door…

"So… I still haven't told you about those conspiracy theories," said Tougo. I'm sure it could have waited until tomorrow, but I'm guessing he wanted to talk to me now, so I invited him in. He took the seat by my desk while I sat on my bed.

"So, what should I know, Glasses?" I've finally learned his name, but sometimes I end up calling him that out of habit.

He sighs out of annoyance and begins to speak. "First, you're aware of what happened before the start of the Despair Incident, correct?"

"Not at all," I said. He made another annoyed face.

"Well, I guess it's not something you need to know, since they're just theories, many of them with creators regarded as crazy people. But it all starts with who decided to plunge the world into chaos. Any interesting guesses about who that person may be?"

"Hm… Probably some powerful, lonely old man with a hatred of the world…?" I had no real idea who could have done something like that, but it'd probably be someone with lots of power.

"Not necessarily. From what I've heard, many people believe it to be a group within the old Hope's Peak Academy, foreign dignitaries with influence in Japan, and members of a mercenary group called Fenrir, or something relating to Norse mythology. But the most popular theory—and the most unbelievable, in my opinion—is that the main orchestrator behind it was a teenaged fashion model and former Hope's Peak student," he said. I suddenly remembered the dream I had earlier this week. Even though I couldn't picture a teenager doing something like that, I honestly wouldn't completely disregard it.

"I expected that kind of shocked response," he continued. "Apparently, the orchestrator behind the Despair Incident had control of a secret weapon within the old school. This weapon—what it was, I'm not entirely sure—was used to kill the student council, and the publication of the event led to unrest among the students in Hope's Peak, then unrest across the country, then unrest around the world. People fought over everything and anything. Entire countries engaged in war with other countries and each other solely for the sake of causing war. People killed other people and destroyed structures. Do you know why the orchestrator decided to begin a modern apocalypse?"

At this point, I became tired. I'm still not understanding how some of these things led to others, and it's hard to figure out what this person wanted to achieve. I lay down and answered saying that I wasn't sure why.

"The orchestrator decided to do this for the sake of despair," he said as he pushed up his glasses. What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"As if I know," he said. Why not? He knows all this other shit. He then continued speaking. "All I know is that the orchestrator despaired and apparently wanted others to feel despair, thus beginning the end of the world."

"But… That didn't work," I said.

"Correct. Shortly after the world was plunged into 'despair', an organization called the Future Foundation was formed. Their objective was to reverse the destruction caused by the orchestrator and spread 'hope'," said Tougo. What's up with these abstract concepts? What were their ideas of hope and despair?

"You're probably wondering why all these abstract concepts have come about," said Tougo. I swear to god. "I have no real idea, myself. I'm not sure how these two organizations defined these idea. All I know is that they were opposites, and hope won in the end. Actually, I'm not even sure hope won out…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Around the beginning stages of the spreading of despair, alleged students of Hope's Peak—seen as symbols of 'hope'—were forced into a similar situation to the one we're facing."

"So… you mean…" We're not the first group of kids being forced to kill our friends.

"Exactly. They were locked in the old school and forced to kill each other for the hope of getting out, but in reality they'd face a world worse than their cage. Only six of those students made it out alive. I think they might have been the ones to start the Future Foundation, but I could be wrong," he said.

"That sounds just like our situation," I said.

"That's probably because it is," he said. "Isn't there anything you can deduce from all that information?"

Something to deduce? I gave it some thought.

"That must mean… There's a copycat somewhere near us," I said.

"Correct. Someone didn't appreciate the fact that the orchestrator's plan ultimately failed, so they're trying to start them up again."

"But… if a student was the one to begin it—"

"That's just a theory."

"Riiiight… Anyway, do you think there's a chance that the mastermind behind this is a student?"

"I highly doubt that. The most intelligent students here—myself included—are all very obviously against this plan, and I doubt we're that good as actors," he said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well, the mastermind could be pretending to be stupid," I said.

"You're beginning to make me think you're the mastermind, if that's the case," said Tougo. Asshole. "Anyway, right now it's not important who's doing this. It's important that we take them down."

"How can we do that without knowing who they are?" I asked.

"I'm guessing Ido wants to discuss that tomorrow," he stated.

"So… Is there more you need to tell me?" I'm seriously hoping he says no.

"Actually…" (God damn it). "Yes. About a year or two later, the remaining people involved in the Despair Incident were rounded up by the Future Foundation and forced to undergo mental purging in an attempt to rid their minds of their thoughts of despair. I'm not sure exactly how, but it ended badly and only five of them made it out of the mental purging," said Tougo.

"I feel like you know exactly how," I said. I think I know how.

"What do you mean? You think the same thing that happened at the school happened to them?"

"Uh, yeah."

Tougo sighed. "Anyway, it took ten years after that for the chaos to stop. I'm sure most of us were born in the couple of years after it ended, so most of it didn't directly affect us."

"So it all started about 25 years ago," I said. My mind began to wander off.

"Pretty much," he said. "Hey, are you falling asleep?"

"Nah," I said unconvincingly. He glanced at me, and I'm guessing he decided to conclude it there.

"So, do you have any questions?" He asked this as he made his way to the door.

"Yeah. Why should I trust you?"

He looked shocked. "What?"

"You know too much for me to be able to think 'Oh, he probably looked it up online before.' How can I be sure you're not the mastermind?"

"Why… Why would I be the mastermind?"

"Why not? You're smart enough, you know about what's going on, you have that air of sophistication that stereotypical villains tend to have, you're good looking…" I had no idea it was possible to be that tired.

He blushed. "Wha… what was that last one?"

"I don't know. Probably something about being good at looking out for clues," I said.

"Oh… Okay…" he said. Nice save. (I think I heard something along the lines of "I don't swing that way… I think").

"Besides, I'm not the person behind this. I highly doubt that one of us is, actually," he said. "Plus, if you suspect me of being the person behind this, why do you trust me to be in your room?"

"That's a good point," I said. "Get out."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Fine," he said as he left. Finally, he left. I fell asleep thinking about what all he told me. Really, none of it made any sense to me, but in a situation where nothing makes any sense, it somehow made sense.

"—Let's give it our all again today!"

It's always this part. I pushed the blanket off myself—wait, I don't remember pulling the covers over myself… I realized I was wearing the same clothes from when I was working concessions, so I must not have bothered to change. But who…

Oh. My. God. I walked to my door to see if it was locked. Surely enough, it wasn't. I locked it, though there was probably no purpose in that. Gah! How could I be so careless?!

Wait… I wasn't the careless one here… Tougo was. But if he left my door unlocked, then was he… Nah. He's not that nice. Although I wouldn't put it past Nezumi… Anyway, I need to remember to lock the doors. And I probably shouldn't let that guy in again. I'm beginning to distrust him.

I prepared myself to meet with the others again. After doing all the necessary stuff, I realized I still had half an hour before the meeting started, so I decided to just head to the cafeteria to get a head start on breakfast. As I approached the door to the kitchen, Ko stopped me.

"Nakauchi-san! I'm sorry, but I can't let you in the kitchen," said Ko. She seemed more relaxed today, for some reason.

"Oh. Hi, Yamamoto-san," I said. "Wait, did you call me by my name?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "Ido-san asked me to learn everyone's name. She said calling you guys by your titles is too impersonal. I was also told not to let anyone in here, so I'm sorry, but can you please take a seat?"

"Oh. Uh… sure, I guess," I said. I'm a bit shocked. Ko is talking more than usual, and her voice isn't getting softer as she speaks.

"Yamamoto-san, something about you seems different," I said.

"Wha-what is it?"

"Well… You seem less…"

"Yo! Rin-chama, I didn't know you played for that team," said Bunpei. He must have arrived recently, because I don't remember him being there before.

"Wait, I do—I mean, what?! What is that supposed to mean?" What he said just registered with me.

"Hehe. Although you'll be taking away a cute girl from us guys, I can get behind that," said Bunpei with a goofy smile on his face. I noticed Ko blushing—probably because Bunpei called her cute. He then walked towards the kitchen door.

"Furuda-kun, wait! I'm not—in there—Ido-san— cute—waaahhh," said Ko. Her voice went soft again, and she sort of slid down to the ground (on what, I'm not sure). He walked in, not realizing that Ko was trying to stop him.

"Oh, no! Ido-san's going to be mad at me," whispered Ko. Her face was still pink from blushing so much.

"Don't worry, I'll explain to her," I said. Bunpei walked back out with a piece of toast in his mouth. He glanced at Ko sitting on the ground.

"…Di' I do sumfin' romg'?"

"Furuda-kun, Yamamoto-san was trying to stop you from going in there," I explained.

"Oh! Oops. Well, I guess that's to be expected. Breakfast smells delicious, by the way, Ko-chan," Bunpei said without toast in his mouth. "Anyway, I'll leave you two to your flirting." He winked and walked away. Dear god, I worry for the girls in this school.

"That idiot probably assumed I'm a girl," I said.

"Well, Nakauchi-san… What exactly are you?" Ko asked.

"Hm… I'm not gonna answer that," I replied. More students started arriving, and Ko returned to the kitchen to finish preparing. Promptly at 8:00, Kotaka began the meeting.

"Alright. We have several orders of business to discuss," she began. "First, I've decided to add some new rules in hopes of preventing further deaths. Rule number one: Absolutely no one is allowed to travel at night. From the time the night announcements are given to the time the morning announcements sound, none of us are allowed to leave our rooms or the room you happen to be in." At this, I glanced at Tougo, but he was looking away from me. It was kinda obvious he was trying hard not to look my way.

"Second," continued Kotaka. "The only person allowed to enter the kitchen is Yamamoto. She is not allowed to let anyone else in unless it is okay with me—"

"Well, Taka-chan, do you really think that should be the case? I mean, I kinda doubt your judgment in character," said Neko cluelessly. Jeez, even I can tell when to not bring something up. Kotaka shot her a nasty look, then continued speaking.

"Rule number three," she continued. "If you want to go somewhere outside your room, you must have at least one other person with you."

"Neko brings up a valid point, though," said Alice accusingly.

"It's Neko-_chan_," said Neko. Alice ignored her.

"Birdie, dear, were you not friends with a girl who decided to murder someone?" I can tell Alice is trying to call to question Kotaka's authority here. This probably won't end well.

"Alice, I would very much appreciate it if you would shut your fucking mouth," said Kotaka. I can tell she's trying to conceal her anger, but it's coming out in her voice. Alice did not shut her fucking mouth, by the way.

"I mean, you were the proud best friend of a serial murderer, and—"

"Shut it, Alice," said Tobiki.

"Excuse me?" She looked offended.

"No one here is happy about the fact that Ying and Yanaihara-kun both died yesterday, but none of us could have known that Ying was capable of doing such a thing. The only living person that knew she killed her family was herself, and we know Yanaihara-kun was your best friend here, but it's not fair to take your anger out on Ido-san. If we continue like this, we'll all end up losing friends." Tobiki looked directly at Alice, but it seemed like his mind was elsewhere…

_He was first to lose a friend._

"In any case, Yamamoto is the only authorized personnel for the kitchen, and that's final," said Kotaka. "Attempts at causing unrest will not be tolerated."

"So, is there some sort of punishment for breaking these rules?" Neko again.

"I… I guess not," said Kotaka. "I'm relying on you guys to have integrity and not try anything underhanded. If you're worried you can't do that, Alice, I'm sure we can come up with something appropriate for you as a punishment. Next order of business, Karafuto has something to share."

"Right!" Nezumi stood up. "Another door has been unlocked. That door leads to a hallway that leads to a super awesome building! It's got libraries and science labs and a huge greenhouse garden at the top floor! I think we should investigate it after this meeting ends."

"Libraries? Sounds interesting," said Yasushi. Murmurs arose from everyone else.

"Please be silent," said Kotaka. "Now, we have one more matter to discuss. We need to find a means of escape from this school and find a way to take down the mastermind."

"As if that'll work, nya~" Hanneko jumped on the table and walked towards Kotaka's end. A couple of the girls screamed.

"The only person here with the slightest clue as to who the mastermind could be is completely wrong," he said. I glanced at Tougo. He looked puzzled.

"Waaaaait…" said Nezumi. "Does this mean you're dropping the whole independently operated shtick?"

"Well, it's incredibly obvious I'm being controlled by someone, genius. Bet you'll never guess who~. In any case, there's no way out for all of you in this world. Maybe in the afterlife, but I doubt you losers want to go through that. It's stay here forever or sacrifice everyone in the making of a perfect crime! That's the only way for _one_ of you to leave," said Hanneko. He then bounced off the table and into the ceiling somehow. I don't think anyone saw how he disappeared, but I'm pretty freaked out.

"I hate that damn cat," said Jay.

"Anyway, ignore him. We will find a way out, and we will make it out alive," said Kotaka. I admired those hopeful words of hers. She tried her best to be a good leader in a bad situation.

"Breakfast is ready, everyone," said Ko.

"Alright. Meeting adjourned until tomorrow," said Kotaka. Ko decided to put all the plates on a cart and roll them out. I guess that's good for keeping up with Kotaka's rule. We all ate and chattered about, and Nezumi took a seat near me after getting her food.

"Hey, Rin-chan! Feels like it's been a while since we talked," said Nezumi.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said.

"Want to go see the new building with me? I'm still making maps for it, so I need to go back," she said excitedly. I can tell she really likes this building.

"Alright, I'm game," I said.

"Oh! Can I join you two?" An unexpected voice asked this. Irina took a seat between me and Tougo, but she looked at Nezumi and me.

"Sure thing, Iririn," said Nezumi.

"Yay!" She seemed excited. Something about this seemed odd to me, but I decided to ignore that feeling.

After an hour in the cafeteria, Nezumi and I went to the door for the new building. Irina followed closely behind us. Nezumi showed me the labs, and I walked around to look at the cabinets and drawers. Irina stood behind me, looking over my shoulder. I read the label on some bottles and containers, and I stood silent.

"Is something wrong?" Irina asked from behind me.

"Yeah… a bunch of these bottles are full of poison," I said. She began to frown.

"Ay, que no! We should warn the others," said Irina.

"Right," I said. Irina's acting kinda weird…

Nezumi then decided to show me the library. It was freaking huge! I'd never seen a larger collection of books before then. We ran into Tougo and Yasushi there.

"Hey, ladies and… Nakauchi-san," said Yasushi. I took no offense.

"Hey, Yasu-kun," said Nezumi. "You guys looking around, too?"

"Kinda," he said. "So far we've spent almost all of our time in here. Hanai-kun seems so at home here, so I'm not too keen on interrupting him."

"Tougo is here, isn't he? Hola, amigo! Has visto el laboratorio abajo de este piso? Ten cuidado, porque hay venenos," said Irina.

Tougo looked up from his book. "Ay, Irina! No debes hablar de eso así casualmente! Dilo a Kotaka, ella sabrá que debemos hacer."

"Pero, Tougo, los otros no pueden comprender que decimos, entonces está bien—"

"Okay, I'm tired of hearing this," said Kotaka. She walked over to us from another tall shelf. "You guys, please speak in a language we can all understand. I think I heard my name, so does anything you two discussed involve me?"

"Probably. The lab downstairs has poison in it," said Irina. Kotaka's face turned white.

"Okay… I guess I need to add another rule," she said. She then pulled out her ElectroID and began typing. Minutes later, I got a message saying "New rule: No one is allowed in the laboratory at all." Alrighty then.

"Anyway, if you two keep speaking aloud in Spanish, I'm going to assume you both have something to hide. Is that the case?" Kotaka acknowledged Irina and Tougo.

"No, ma'am," said Tougo.

"Alright. Carry on." Kotaka returned to the shelf she was examining. I decided to look around a bit. I then noticed a familiar title on a table…

"_Aokigahara Months_? This was Ying's book," I said. Irina (I'm beginning to notice a pattern here) peeked at it from over me.

"Can I see?" I handed her the book, not questioning why she would want to look at it. I then heard the shuffling sound of papers falling to the ground.

"What's that?" I asked. Nezumi and Irina picked them up. Both of them then gasped.

"These are… pictures," said Nezumi. Nothing unusual about that, so why was she so freaked out? Yasushi walked towards them, then gasped as well.

I walked to see what could be so shocking, expecting it to be nothing. I gasped as well. The picture on top was one of Ying and Shinobu. Ying's arm was around Shinobu's shoulder, and Ying was smiling widely and giving the victory symbol. Shinobu looked away from the camera and had his arms crossed. Both of them were wearing brown uniforms and sitting in what looked to be a classroom without boarded up windows and cameras. The sun shone through the windows, and both of them seemed happy (although Shinobu tried to hide it).

Alright, now I'm _ridiculously _confused.


	10. Chapter Three: Suspicion and Dissention

**Author's Note: Hello! Time for a Super Special Saturday Update :D ! Updates normally come out on Tuesday, but I'm thinking of changing to biweekly releases just to keep this story from going on for so long. Anyway, I would like to apologize for how lame the second chapter trial went and for how much worse the writing was. I was kinda rushed, heh. Even so, I hope you enjoy the future chapters, and I hope you guys don't hate me for the uber lame plot twist that's coming up on Tuesday. Please review if you have speculations or constructive criticism~**

Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

-Ambrose Bierce

"Nya, I see you guys've found those," said Hanneko. We looked around to see where he was, but we couldn't find him until he jumped down from a shelf and landed on all fours in a typical feline fashion.

"Can you please stop doing that?" Tougo decided to look up from the book he was so intently reading for a moment.

"Anyway," said Hanneko, ignoring Tougo. "Since I'm sure you're all wondering, those photos aren't fake. They're one-nyandred percent real!"

"But—What is the meaning of this? When could these two have taken this picture?" For once, I'd seen Kotaka freaking out. Clearly this is a pretty big deal.

"Nya, I'm getting tired of these plot twists and such, so I might tell you soon. But for now, your guess is as good as any," said Hanneko. "Later, losers!"

Hanneko then hopped away, leaving us with more questions than answers, like normal. Yasushi walked behind Kotaka and glanced at the pictures. There were two more behind the one with Ying and Shinobu. One of them featured Tobiki and Kenzo looking at blueprints much like how they were on Monday (Tamaki sat and smiled while observing them), and the other showed Jay, Neko, and Irina smiling and waving at the camera. Neko was wearing her normal kitty hat, and all three were wearing brown uniforms similar to the one Ying had in the first picture.

"Irina-san," said Yasushi. "Do you remember taking a photo like this?"

"Not at all! I mean, I've done similar shoots for school uniforms, but I don't remember ever working with Jay and Neko," explained Irina.

"Irina-chan, I keep asking you to call me Neko-chan," said Neko.

Kotaka looked at Neko, who had just arrived. "What is the meaning of this?" As if Neko would have any clue.

"Gomen, kedo wakarimasen. I don't remember that shashin at all," said Neko. She's reverted back to her weeaboo speech. Kotaka looked at her in annoyance.

"Everyone," said Kotaka. "Emergency meeting at noon. Tell your partners. Hanai, tell Alice; Irina, tell Bunpei. Attendance is mandatory." She then left, asking Yasushi to come with her.

"So, what'd I miss?" Could Neko be any more clueless?

"Look at these photos," I said to her. She examined them carefully, then placed them back on the table.

"Wow! Whoever made these must be really good at photoshop! These almost look real," she said. Tougo slapped his palm against his forehead.

"I don't think these are fake," said Nezumi. "There's a reason these were found in Ying's book. Maybe Hanneko wants us to figure something out?"

"Like what? That we all took photos together that we don't remember even though we only met on Monday? I don't see what that could achieve," said Irina.

"Isn't it obvious? Hanneko's trying to tell us that we've had our memories tampered with," said Tougo. The other girls gasped.

"I… That doesn't make sense," I replied. Tougo raised an eyebrow at me, then lowered it back. How could he have reached such a conclusion?

"Nothing here makes sense. Try to think it through, Nakauchi, Karafuto," he said. "I'm leaving." He picked up two of the books he was looking at, then walked out of the library.

"Wait. Should one of us go with him?" Neko asked this.

"He's probably just going to his room," said Nezumi. "We still have an hour until the meeting, so I'll stay with you guys for a while."

"Then I'll go with Hanyai-kun! You know, just to make sure he follows Kotaka's rule, hehe," said Neko. She then left with a goofy smile on her face.

"I'll… I'll go with them. I'm not sure I trust Neko alone with Tougo-kun. Catch up with ya later," whispered Nezumi. She left Irina and me in the library. So… I guess I'll talk to Irina until the meeting. I still never got a chance to speak to her.

"So… Wanna go to the other floors?" I asked. Irina nodded and followed me to the stairs. There wasn't much on the third floor besides locked doors (probably to classrooms), but the last floor had a huge greenhouse. Most of these plants looked like none I've ever seen before, but most of the flowers were all very beautiful and fragrant. Further into the greenhouse, we saw several different trees with fruits growing on them.

"Well, I guess this explains where all the fruits come from," I said.

"I guess, but this place is still too convenient," said Irina. I agree. She looked upward.

"Hey, you think that's the real sky?" I looked up as well, and while it did look like a daytime sky, something about it seemed artificial. Of course, trusting your senses in this school might cause one to abandon logic. Logic… Could such a word even be applicable here? I guess maybe in trials…

"I don't think so," I said. "Even so, this place is ridiculous. It almost feels like we could just break the glass and escape from here—although that probably wouldn't be a good idea, now that I think about it."

Irina giggled. "Hey, I never did thank you for defending me, did I?"

That was unexpected. "I guess not. It's alright. Anyway, Glasses already thanked me on your behalf, I guess, so don't worry about it," I said. She looked surprised for a moment, then smiled.

"Well, I guess I'll have to thank him for thanking you… Or something," she said. Even with her braids and abnormally big glasses, she's still probably the prettiest girl here. I began to wonder about something…

"Hey, Irina," I said. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," she said.

"Well… I don't mean to be rude, but…" I'm not entirely sure if asking this would be rude, but my curiosity's getting the best of me.

"Do you… Are you and Glasses—"

"I had a feeling you'd ask about that," she said. I must have become visibly nervous, since she started giggling at me again.

"How did you know?" I tried to maintain a poker face.

"I used the mystic mind-reading power of my crystal ball glasses," she said in a stereotypical Hispanic fortune-teller accent (still not sure whether that's kinda racist or not).

"Hehe, I'm just kidding. But…" She hesitated and glanced at me coyly. "I don't know. People used to tell me that I 'fell' for people way too quickly and that I was too flirty, so I'm not sure. I liked talking with him because he knew how to speak Spanish really well, and I think he's kinda cute, but I guess my feelings are kinda jumbled. Plus, this isn't exactly the kind of situation that's conducive for romances."

I see what she means. It was kinda silly for me to ask something like that anyway.

"Why? Do you like… well, I guess either of us?"

Huh? That was _really_ unexpected. "I—uh… what?"

"Hehe. Sorry, but much like the other kids here, I'm not too sure what you are, so I'm not sure if you asked that in hopes of pursuing me or Tougo," she said. I wanted to change the subject.

"Uh—anyway, why would you tell me that so readily? Just out of curiosity," I said. She complied, to my relief.

"I don't know. I guess that means I trust you," she said. "Also, it's not good to be dishonest here, so I'm willing to tell anything that anyone needs to know." I didn't really _need_ to know that, but I guess that's a good thing. Maybe that's part of why she seems to attract so many people to her.

"So, your family name is 'Esperanza.' That sound Hispanic, so does that mean you're from Spain or South America?" Wow, that was a stupid question. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice.

"Actually, I was born and mainly raised here. But even since then, I spent summer in Peru, where my parents came from. My mom is Japanese, but my dad was a mix of Japanese and Peruvian I believe. Also—" she looked around for a while. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure," I said.

"My family name is actually Fujimori," she said. I'm not sure why she'd want to keep that a secret, considering she's so willing to talk about other more personal things.

"Okay… but why keep that a secret?"

"Because the name sounds so boring. I liked the sound of the word 'esperanza,' so I decided to use that as my stage name," she said.

Fujimori… It's kinda common, but it's not that bad. Actually, that sounds kinda familiar…

"Uh… Okay," I said. "But aren't there other famous people with the name 'Fujimori'?"

"None that are interesting. You might be thinking about one of my relatives, though. He was president of Peru in the nineties," she said disinterestedly.

"That seems pretty interesting to me," I said. Irina just rolled her eyes.

"Maybe, if you're in to politics. But I never liked that stuff," she said dismissively. "Being on a stage singing seems like more fun than being on a stage giving a speech."

Hm… I could see what she means, but really, both of those fields have their own merits.

"Hey, it looks like it's almost noon," said Irina.

"That was fast," I said. "I guess we should go to the cafeteria soon."

We both left the greenhouse (after being lost for a couple of minutes) and made our way to the cafeteria. Kotaka was already standing at the head of the table and checking to see who had arrived.

"Alright, so, Kawai, Hanai, and Alice aren't here yet," said Kotaka, observing the faces of those that had arrived. I didn't see Ko anywhere either, so I figured she was in the kitchen. I kinda wanted to help, but I didn't want to piss off Kotaka, so I just took a seat.

"Yeah. I think Alice is in her room, and Neko and Tougo-kun are together somewhere," said Nezumi.

"But Megane-kun, I just wanna knoooooow."

"Please leave me alone. That's none of your business."

"You totally do, huh?! Who is it? Dare ka?"

"Whatever you two are talking about, can it wait for about an hour?" Kotaka tried to keep a calm voice, but she looked irritated.

"Yes, please," said Tougo as he took a seat on the further end of the table. Neko sat next to him.

"So, what's this meeting about?" Bunpei asked.

"Let's wait until Alice arrives. I don't want to explain myself again," said Kotaka. Shortly afterward, Alice arrived. She replaced her usual sweet Lolita style with a gothic one, wearing a black dress with several skull and bone motifs as well as a matching purse. She somehow managed to have her makeup done so that she looks even more pale than normal and her eyes more exaggerated. The lightest thing on her was her long burgundy wig. The situation with Tamaki must have affected her more than we'd realized. I can't believe I didn't notice this transformation before.

"So, why are we here?" Alice asked as she walked towards the table. She sat across from Tougo and Neko.

"We're here to discuss what many of us found in the library," said Kotaka. "Sugihara, place the photos on the table."

Yasushi sighed and placed them so that anyone that needed to see them could see them. Everyone that hadn't seen them before looked shocked and confused, as should be expected. Murmurs started, and Kotaka quickly raised her hand to quiet them.

"In any case, we need to discuss what exactly this could mean," said Kotaka.

"Isn't it obvious? Hanneko's trying to mess with us and have another murder happen. Quite frankly, I don't appreciate it at all," said Alice.

"What do you mean, Alice-san?" Tobiki asked, looking alternately at her and the picture of himself and Kenzo. Alice scoffed at him.

"He's trying to play with our heads. He'll do something like offer answers to what those pictures mean as incentives for murder, and they'll probably not even have much to do in solving our situation. I think we should just ignore them," she said.

"While I agree that this isn't something that should cause such an issue between us to lead to another trial, I don't think ignoring them is the best idea," said Nezumi.

"She's right. We should solve this without sacrificing more people," said Tobiki.

"It's pretty much already been solved," said Tougo. "We've had our memories tampered with."

"How can you be so sure?" Alice looked challengingly at Tougo.

"Because this has happened before. Believe it or not, this isn't the first time a situation like ours has occurred," he said.

"What do you mean? Hanai-kun, please explain," said Yasushi. Hanai then gave a basic overview of one event during the Despair Incident (he referred to it this time as the "School Life of Mutual Killing"). Why is he hiding everything else? He didn't mention anything outside of the School Life of Mutual Killing outside who the mastermind could be (my money's still on the teenage girl).

In any case, realization soon struck the other students. Most everyone seemed to understand the situation better, but of course, someone had to cast doubt.

"Hanai," said Kotaka. "How exactly do you know all this?"

"What do you mean?" Tougo said. I feel like he knew exactly what she meant, but what's he hiding?

"I mean where did you learn this? None of us have heard as many details about this as you're giving us. It's incredibly suspicious," said Kotaka. The others began to murmur again, and Tougo looked pensive.

"I… I don't know," said Tougo.

"Stop lying to us, Hanai," said Alice. "You're hiding something. "Spill it."

"I honestly don't know how I know," said Tougo. For the first time, I saw him with a look as if he really didn't know the answer. It kinda worried me.

"Um… Maybe he read it in a book somewhere," said Ko, standing on the table side opposite of Kotaka. That was startling. I didn't even see or hear her enter.

"Oh, really? What book could that be? Despair Incident Conspiracy Theories for Dummies? No books about what happened at that time have ever been published. It's impossible for him to just _know_," snapped Alice.

"We-well… I'm sorry!" Ko said as she bowed. After looking back up, she glanced at Alice's face (probably to assess how mad she was) and paused.

"Alice-san… Have you been…" she began, but hesitated.

"I—SHUT UP, WORTHLESS KITCHEN GIRL! I'M NOT HIDING ANYTHING UNLIKE _THAT ASSHOLE_! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"HEY, CALM DOWN! Don't you dare insult Ko-chan," said Bunpei. "No one said you were hiding anything, anyway!"

"Actually," said Kotaka. "I think she might be."

What? Wait, I know what she means… Something about the events after the last trial is different from that of the first one…

"Alice, it's okay," I said. "Did Ko notice that you had been crying?"

"Crying? Why would she be crying?" Neko asked stupidly.

"Stop talking," Kotaka said to Neko. "Alice, I know you have it. It explains why you've become even more upset."

"I don't have anything! Just leave me alone already," said Alice. She then stood up quickly and bumped into Ko. Both girls fell, and Alice's purse flew out of her hands and in Ko's direction. Everything seemed to spill out, including two ElectroIDs. Ko picked them up.

"Ah! I'm sorry for that," said Ko. "But… how do you have—"

Kotaka walked over and took the ElectroIDs out of Ko's hands.

"Alice-san… Does one of those belong to Tamaki-chan?" Nezumi asked. Alice just looked at her and Ko angrily and ran out.

"Don't stop her," said Kotaka. "She's probably just going to her room. Let her cool down." She then powered up the device. About a minute later, a hologram of Tamaki appeared.

"Excuse me," it said in a semi-robotic voice. "If you don't mind, can you please tell me who this is?"

"You're addressing everyone except Ying, Alice, Tsukuru, and Murai," said Kotaka.

"Oh, no! Are Alice-san and Ying okay?"

"Alice is fine. Ying is…" Kotaka hesitated.

"Oh… I see… Is she the one that killed me?"

"Yanaihara," said Kotaka. "Please… Can you please forgive Ying?"

"Of course," it said. "While I don't exactly like that I died, I kinda expected it to happen. I'm not exactly the strongest guy, so I apologize for not being more hopeful, but 'I knew it'd happen sooner or later.

In any case, there are things that I want to tell you guys. Thank you all for being so nice to me. At my old school, people tended to avoid me because of my hobbies and my appearance. No one ever invited me over for anything, so I was glad for the chance to be able to come here and have fun with you guys. I especially had fun at the sleepover, even though I didn't expect to. I only went because I wanted Alice to have fun there, but she'd refuse to go if I didn't agree to go with her. That's the only way she managed to get me to wear one of those Lolita dresses, heh. I'm sorry I don't have much else to say besides thanks to all of you. Despite the situation, I had fun this past week. Also, Wakabayashi-san, don't let what Alice-san said to you on the first day bother you. I think you're cute. Goodbye," it said before cutting off. This one was noticeably shorter than Kenzo's. Many of the girls seemed upset, and Tobiki blushed a bit.

Kotaka looked through the ID. "Just as I suspected," she began. "The sleepover was supposed to be no boys allowed. Oh, well, can't be helped now."

"Wait, it shows Tama-chan's gender in the ElectroID?" Neko asked.

"Yeah. All the ElectroIDs show that…" Nezumi replied, then glanced at me. Soon, the others turned to face me as well.

"Sorry, but I don't have my ID with me," I lied.

"Oh, really nyao?"

Hanneko landed on the table in front of me. He looked at me angrily.

"Not carrying your ElectroID is against the rules! You should know this by now, Nyakauchi!"

"Uh…" I… have I even looked at the rules?

"Don't tell me you didn't read the rules! I told you last time, you'd be punished if you don't know the rules around this place! You've been here for almost a _week_ and still didn't—"

"Rule number one."

Huh? I looked around and noticed Jay looking at her ElectroID.

"Students are to live out their lives together exclusively within the academy. Indefinitely," she read. "Attempts at contacting for help from the outside world somehow are forbidden. Rule number two, the period from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. is designated 'nighttime.' Be aware that certain areas are off-limits during this time. Rule number three, sleep is only permitted in dormitory bedrooms. Deliberate use of any other room will be treated as sleeping in class and punished accordingly. Rule number four, you may investigate New Hope's Peak Academy freely. To this end, no particular limitations have been placed on you actions. Rule number five, violence against the headmaster, Hanneko, is forbidden. Furthermore, destruction of surveillance cameras is also prohibited. Rule number six, the villain who kills one of his companions will be allowed to 'graduate,' provided his crime is not betrayed to the other students. Rule number seven, students must carry their ElectroIDs with them at all times. Rule number eight, the culprit is not allowed to kill more than two students at once. And finally, rule number nine, additional rules may be added to the list, if deemed necessary."

Hanneko looked at her angrily, then sighed. "Well, I guess I can't do anything now. Lucky you, lottery student," he said as he hopped off again.

"Uwaa~ Jay-chan's sugoi! She just totally saved Rin-tan's life," said Neko. That she did. I'll have to thank her later.

"In any case, I think this meeting is adjourned, unless someone's made progress in finding a way out of here?" Kotaka looked around, and none of the students raised their hands or acknowledged her statement. It seems like the situation with Hanneko caused everyone to forget the original issue.

"Alright," she said.

"A-also," said Ko. "Lunch is ready." Like usual, the meals themselves were uneventful. People talked as if we weren't in a life-threatening situation. Maybe that's their way of coping.

"Um," said Ko. "I'm going to bring Alice-san's lunch to her! Excuse me." She then left without protests from any of us.

After finishing, I went to look for Jay. It seems like most of the others have already found something else to do (curse my slow eating habits). I found her in the top floor of the Recreational Building with Irina and Neko. They were in… a karaoke room?

"Hey, it's Rin-tan!" Neko said. "We're gonna sing karaoke!"

"No, we're not," said Jay. "We just came to investigate this building more."

"Aww, well that's no fun," said Neko.

"Maybe we could invite the others over one day for a karaoke night," said Irina.

"Yay! Tanoshii mitai na, Irina-chan," said Neko.

"Uh… Yeah. Anyway, thanks for earlier, Jay," I said. "I think Hanneko might have killed me then. He seemed pretty mad."

"Not a problem! Now that I know you're my assigned partner, I gotta look out for ya! Need ta make sure you don't get killed and make sure you don't kill, so I'm kinda responsible for ya life here," said Jay. "Still, I didn't know what'd happen then. I kinda took a shot in the dark there."

"Wow. Anyway, thanks a lot. But how'd you know he wouldn't kill me for not having my ID?"

Jay looked at me like she already knew the answer. "Because ya did have your ID. Ya told me about the meetin' through it, and when I checked in on ya, I saw you were hangin' with homegirl here," she said. I'm guessing "homegirl" is Irina. "It didn't look like ya left it in your room or anythin', so figured you still had it."

"Nice job. You were right," I said.

"Hey, why do ya keep the gender thing a secret anyway?"

"Just 'cuz."

"… Alright," she said. It looks like she wants to ask, but she doesn't.

"I have a couple of questions for you," I said.

"What, another interview? Haha, I'm kiddin'. Ask away," she said.

"You're from the USA, correct?"

"Yep. Born and raised in the land of the free, now livin' in the land of the risin' sun," she said.

"I thought so. You speak the language pretty well," I said.

"Thanks. 'Cept sometimes when you guys're arguin', it's hard ta understand what you're saying," she said. "I got my letter in March, so I only had a month ta try ta learn Japanese."

Wow. That's impressive. I'd think she studied for longer than that. "Awesome," I said. "You speak it better than Neko, to be honest," I whispered.

"Haha! Thanks, I think," she said. "So, you're probably wondering why I'd wanna come to such a far-out school in a completely different country so bad."

Only a little bit. "Yeah, kinda," I said.

"Well, after readin' up about it, I learned how high the success rate for graduatin' students was. Naturally, I'd wanna get in on that. But a huge part of the reason why I came was because a young businessman from the Togami group was part of Class 78 at the old Hope's Peak," she said.

Togami? That name seems vaguely familiar somehow. "I think I've heard of him," I said.

"Yeah. His family was super rich and powerful, but he was able to stand on his own as well. I thought that was awesome and wanted ta be like him, but my family was kinda poor, so I started from the bottom. But now I'm here," she said. Such high ambitions. Yet another person here for me to be jealous of.

"But…" she began again. "There's not much record of what happened to him after that Despair Period thing. His family had died out, and nothing about him was written after his Hope's Peak days. I think he's still alive, though he's probably in his fifties now."

"Yeah, probably," I said. Jay sighed.

"I hope we'll be able to make it out of here," she said sadly. Me too, Jay. Me, too.

I spent the rest of Saturday goofing off for a bit, then heading right to my room. For some reason, I've been getting tired earlier on in the day, and I can't seem to bring myself to stay up. I went to sleep well before the nighttime announcements.


	11. Chapter Three: Senseless Plot Twist One!

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Good morning, losers! It's Sunday, so you guys don't have any school activities to do today. Just spend the day relaxing or panicking, if nya want. Also, be prepared. Tomorrow starts a new school week, a new challenge, and a new plot twist! Nya ha ha! Later, losers!"

As I woke up to Hanneko's ever-pleasant morning announcement, I felt a chill run down my spine. I'm not sure why at all, but it was definitely not a pleasant feeling. As I got ready for the day how I normally do, I received a message from Kotaka. No morning meeting today. That was odd.

Anyway, I made my way to the cafeteria and spotted Ko and Alice talking when I got there. They didn't seem to notice me.

"Listen, my child, I do apologize for my deplorable behavior yesterday," said Alice. For once, she sounded sincere about something.

"Uh… It's perfectly fine, Alice-san. I'm sorry for being so rude and asking about it," said Ko.

"Don't worry, my child. It was especially rude for me to yell at you without reason. I was just really upset about what happened to my jewel, and seeing his dying message only left me more distraught. He wouldn't want me to be like this to everyone, so I would like to make amends, starting with you, dear," replied Alice. Even though I kinda distrust and dislike Alice, I'm proud of her for owning up to her mistakes and trying to fix them.

"Th-thank you very much, Alice-san! If it's fine with you, I'd like to be your friend! I know I'm probably not as interesting or pretty as Yanaihara-kun, but I'll try my best to be a good friend," said Ko. Alice looked pleasantly surprised.

"Why, of course! I'm willing to be friends with everyone here," said Alice. "Except for that worthless—"

"Yo, Yamamoto-san," I said before Alice could insult me (we all knew it was coming). When I called out to Ko, Alice looked at me in annoyance.

"Eavesdropping, huh? This is why I hate people like you," said Alice.

"Um, I don't think Nakauchi-san was—"

"Don't worry about it, child. Nakauchi probably just wishes to be as interesting as us, so it takes notes," said Alice. Ko laughed reluctantly.

"Uh… Yeah," I said. "Anyway, Yamamoto-san, I just want some fruit, then I'll go to my room. Can I go in the kitchen to get some?"

"Uh… I'll go get it," she said. A few minutes later, she returned with a plate of sliced apples and grapefruit.

"Sorry for taking so long," she said.

"Uh… That was actually pretty quick. And you didn't need to—"

"I don't appreciate you treating my friend like a servant," said Alice. "You should have gone to get that for yourself."

"Actually," said Ko. "I've been asked not to let anyone in the kitchen, so I kinda had to…"

"Hmph. In any case, I don't appreciate someone so low asking my friend to do menial tasks for them," said Alice. I just decided to leave at that point to avoid further irritation on her part. I said bye to Ko, then left to wander the school since I was no longer interested in going back to my room. I managed to walk around alone for quite some time before someone found me.

"Hey, Nakauchi!"

I had walked into the Research Building, and I was under the impression that I was alone. I forgot about Kotaka's rule, so of course she'd come to stop me.

"You know you're not supposed to be alone here, right? Find a friend to walk around with or go to your room," she said.

"Okay," I said as I checked my ElectroID. Alice and Ko were in their rooms; Nezumi, Yasushi, and Tobiki were in the gym in the Recreational Building; Tougo, Jay, Irina, and Neko were in the library; and Bunpei was alone by the pool.

"Hey," I called out to Kotaka. "It looks like Bunpei's by himself near the pool."

"I know," said Kotaka. "I was going to check in on him next. Even though he's breaking a rule, I highly doubt he's doing something suspicious right now."

Gee. Thanks, Kotaka.

"Come with me to tell him," she said. I wouldn't want to begin an argument with her, so I complied and walked to the Rec Building with her. We actually managed to start a conversation along the way. Turns out she's into politics because everyone around her told her she'd never be able to pull off something like that and she felt the world didn't have enough female leaders, so she wanted to become one.

"Yeah," she said. "As a child, I was very introverted and quiet, so whenever I said I wanted to be like my uncle or my grandfather and get into politics, I was laughed at even by them. I spent all my time working towards my goal, and I've even managed to help resolve some of Japan's social problems while still being too young to even run for office." She smiled confidently, as if she were telling those naysayers, "Yeah, you were completely wrong." I must say, I enjoy a smiling Kotaka over a serious one.

"Congratulations," I said sincerely.

"Thanks," she replied.

"It takes lots of guts to get into something like that, let alone prove someone wrong at the same time. You must be fearless," I said. She paused for a moment.

"I'm… definitely not fearless," she said. "I'm afraid that with each passing day, I'll lose more of you guys, especially those that I've become closer to. Knowing Ying killed Yanaihara hurts very much, and I don't want to become friends with another killer or another victim, so I'm trying to prevent that as well as I can. In this situation, any other fears I may have had before seem childish and silly."

That's very admirable of her. But my curiosity's been piqued slightly. What could fearless Kotaka have been afraid of before?

"I still can't imagine you being afraid of anything," I said to her as we entered the hallway leading to the Rec Building.

"Well," she said. "I guess I can tell you this, since I doubt you'll use it against me and it doesn't bother me anymore. When I was younger, I saw my older brother playing a video game, and he was fighting a hideous green monster with orange hair. Later that night, I had a nightmare that the monster I saw his character fighting against was trying to fight me, and he used some weird electric power on me and—well, I used to be afraid of that character. I even asked to take martial arts classes if I ever needed to fight it."

Haha! I'm sorry, but that was kinda hilarious. "Hehe, that's actually kinda funny. It's hard to imagine you were afraid of a video game character," I said, and she glared at me angrily.

"I-that's not funny! It's ridiculous," she said. We walked to the top floor and opened the door opposite the karaoke area. The door led directly to the pool. There were male and female designated locker rooms on the opposite side and a set of bleachers on two opposite walls. Kotaka checked her ElectroID, then looked around.

"I don't see him," said Kotaka. "But it says he's over that way." She directed my attention to the far side of the bleachers near the boys' locker room.

"I don't see him either," I said. "Maybe he left, and there's some sort of lag going on."

"I doubt it," said Kotaka. "He's been in here for a long time before we arrived, so I'm guessing—"

"RAAAAAAAGH!"

Kotaka and I both heard a startling scream from behind us and turned around. Before us was a green mutant wearing brown shorts. Its chest and arms had hair matching the familiar orange color on its head. It began to speak.

"Hahaha! Did I—ack!"

Before it could finish its statement, Kotaka screamed and kicked it. It landed right in the pool with a large splash. Moments later, the pool water around it turned a similar color green to its skin…

"Furuda-kun, you're such an idiot," I said. He soon resurfaced. Some of the makeup remained on his skin, but a lot of it mixed in with the water.

"Wow, Kotaka-sama, that was unexpected! Nice kick," he said. Kotaka looked mortified.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING THAT MAKEUP?! WHAT THE FLYING FUCK WERE YOU TRYING TO DO?!"

Bunpei stepped out of the pool, still a dripping mess of chlorinated water and green makeup. "Well, I was kinda bored, so I asked Ko-chan to help make me look like one of my favorite video game characters. I never told her what I was planning to do, though. She did a really good job, too! As expected of a Super High School Level Makeup Artist," he said. Kotaka stared at him in confusion and irritation and sighed a tired sigh.

"Go get that makeup off of yourself. Also, you shouldn't be in the pool with your ElectroID with you," she said as if that were completely his fault.

"One, it's not like I was planning on getting in the pool," he said matter-of-factly. "Two, I actually dropped my ElectroID when I heard someone coming. I think it's over there, so no harm done," he said. He pointed in the same direction as where Kotaka and I saw his name appear.

"Nyeah, even if he did have it on him, it would've been fine," said a familiarly vexing voice. Hanneko jumped out from the pool. Oddly enough, he didn't have a single drop of water on him.

"Hanneko! What are you here for?" I asked.

"I came to talk to you kids about a couple of things. I'm tired of you bastards dirtying up the school! First you jerks didn't clean up the freaking theater after the play, and now I have to clean this pool! Gah, I swear. Teenagers are the worst. I'm glad I'm out of that phase in my life," said Hanneko.

"Anyway, clean up after yourselves! Cleaning up dead bodies is bad enough." With that, Hanneko disappeared through the bleachers.

"That was…" began Bunpei.

"… Confusing?" Kotaka finished.

"Yeah. I didn't realize we were making such a mess. Wouldn't want to piss of Hanneko further, so I guess we should start doin' what he says," said Bunpei.

Shortly after that exchange, I returned to my room out of boredom. I didn't really want to talk to anyone today, so I pretty much sat around and thought about the situation. It just dawned on me that we still have close to no idea what's going on, and we've been here for almost a week and four of us are dead. At 8:00, I was snapped back into my current reality.

"Nya, can I please have your attention? Remember what I said this morning about new plot twists and challenges? Well, those all start tomorrow at 8:00 ante meridian in the gym, so be there or beware! It's a mandatory class meeting," said Hanneko over the announcement system. "Anyway, two more hours until nighttime, so make the most of it. Later nya~"

Ugh. I hate that freaking toy. I amused myself in wondering if there would be a trial for destroying him. Just goes to show how my sense of humor's changing. Like usual, I was asleep long before the nighttime announcements were even made.

I woke up at 7:30, well after the morning announcement. Why the hell am I sleeping so much? Eh. Anyway, like usual, I prepared myself for whatever ridiculous task Hanneko has for us now. As I left my room, I noticed Tobiki and Nezumi walking towards the gym together.

"Good morning, Rin-chan," said Nezumi.

"Oh, hi Nakauchi-san," said Tobiki. I waved to both of them and decided to walk there with them.

"Hey, Rin-chan, what do you think's gonna happen at the meeting? I'm kinda scared," said Nezumi.

"Probably another stupid assignment," I said. I hadn't given much thought to why we were having this meeting.

"I'm kinda worried. Nothing like this has happened before. What if Hanneko has something planned to try to wipe all of us out?" I didn't like Tobiki's word choice, for some reason. "Wipe us out" made it sound like we were weak and insignificant and could be taken out easily.

"I highly doubt that," I said. "While I don't want to admit it, Hanneko's keeping us here more than likely for his own sick kicks. Killing us off at the same time isn't entertaining." Suddenly, my face stung. I turned to see a sad expression on Nezumi's face.

"Rin-chan, stop talking like that! Don't treat this like a joke! Our lives are at stake, and your claiming this as some form of 'entertainment' is horrible! It's like you're losing your humanity," said Nezumi. I hadn't expected that reaction at all. I'm not sure she sees exactly what I'm saying.

"Nezumi," I tried to say reassuringly. "Don't worry. I'm not treating this as a joke. I realize how serious the situation is, but we need to remember exactly why we're in it and fight against it. Hanneko doesn't want there to be peace among us, so he'll try to cause problems for us that'll lead to more deaths. We can't afford him the satisfaction, so we need to remember the situation." She still looked upset, but realized what I was trying to say.

"Okay," she said as we approached the gym. "Sorry about slapping you."

"It's fine," I said. We walked into the gym to see that most of the students had arrived. It looked like the only person who hadn't arrived yet was Ko. She arrived shortly after we did.

"Sorry, guys, had to fix breakfast," she said. Her voice has gotten louder.

"Nyeah, don't care," said Hanneko. He stood at the podium on the stage. "Anyway, you're all probably wondering what could be happening here. _Oh, no, is Hanneko gonna horribly massacre us? Are we being punished for trying to avoid murder and creating peace?_ Nya ha ha! Don't worry, losers. You're just getting a new assignment today! Come out, dearie~"

With that, Hanneko looked towards the left side of the stage (I guess it'd be his right) and beckoned someone with his paw. I looked around the gym. Everyone was here, and they all began to look scared. Once I realized that someone unknown came out, I began to freak out as well. As he came further, I realized that the person was… A teenage boy? He had short, light green hair that almost reached his eyes, which were a strange shade of pink. Standing on the stage, he faced us.

"Greetings, classmates," said the boy. He had a European-sounding accent. "My name is Luka Kamishiro-Ivanov. It's a pleasure to meet you all." He then bowed to us. He seemed polite, but it was easy to tell that the other students didn't trust him already.

"Go on, kid. Tell the kids about yourself, nya ha ha," said Hanneko.

"Alright," he said. "I'm a Scorpio, I'm half Russian and half Japanese and can speak and read in both languages, but I was raised mainly in Russia. I have a severe allergy to peanuts, and I like meeting new people and traveling to foreign countries. This place seemed interesting, so I've come here in search of a new adventure!" He seemed very kind and jovial, but everything about him felt suspicious. He came here in search of a new adventure? Doesn't he realize what's happening here?!

Wait… If he's a new student, then he must have come directly from the outside! Then there must be a way out of here, and he's the most likely to know. I'll have to talk to him about that.

"Is this a fucking joke?" Alice broke the silence following Luka's introduction.

"A joke? What could she mean by that?" Luka asked.

"In any case, you bastards have a new assignment! It's not mandatory, but it could prove useful. You bastards have to…" Hanneko paused (probably to create some stupid suspenseful atmosphere). "Get to know Luka Kamishiro-Ivanov! Meeting adjourned." With that, Hanneko disappeared behind the podium again. Luka just looked confused. Everyone else left after Ko decided to ask for our allergy information (poor girl's probably beating herself up over not thinking to do that earlier). After about five minutes, the only people remaining in the gym were me and Luka. He walked off the stage and towards me.

"Hello," said Luka. "I never received a schedule or a map. Just this weird cellphone-thing." He pulled his ElectroID out from his pants pocket. He powered it up.

"Hey, does this show where everyone is?" Luka asked. I looked at the screen, and he looked around on the map function. This kid is unbelievable.

"You... You have no idea what's going on here, do you?" It's as if this guy didn't realize at all what he was getting into when he came here.

"I… I guess not. Hehe, can you explain to me?" Luka said. He smiled naively. This is going to be a lot of work.

Luka and I talked for a while. I learned that he was actually admitted here as the Super High School Level Chess Player, and he had no real idea about the scholastic arena that's been created.

"So," I said. "We actually don't have to worry much about schoolwork. We just have to make sure no one tries to kill anyone and find a way out of here."

"Ah, I see. I'm sorry you guys have been stuck in this situation, and hopefully someone will come to rescue us soon," he said.

"Yeah. Until then, we need to avoid more deaths," I said.

"Alright. You can be sure that I won't kill anyone! It's against my moral code," he said. We were now in the library. I checked my ID, and it looked like Tougo and Irina were also here.

"Hey, Rin's here with—" Irina began, then froze. She looked at Luka in fear. "H-hi, Lukaaa…" said Irina nervously. Her accent returned.

"Hello. Forgive me, but you look very familiar. Is your name Irina?" Luka asked her. Irina nodded.

"Pleased to meet you! I'm a big fan of your modeling work," said Luka. Irina's expression changed slightly.

"Thank you. Please excuse me," she said as she walked towards Tougo. They both began speaking in Spanish (probably about Luka), so I ignored them.

"So…" I said. "You play chess?" I can never seem to help but say something stupid and obvious, I guess.

"Haha! Yes, I do," he said.

"I think I saw a chessboard on one of the tables. Care to play?" I asked.

"Of course. But I'm not going easy on you," he said.

We both played chess for about ten minutes. I wound up winning the game.

"Uh…" I said. "Are you sure you have your title right?"

"Hm… I guess not," he said. "Well, I have always been better at composing music than playing chess. I guess I should change my title to Super High School Level Musical Composer, haha."

Wait. He can't just change his title… Can he? Oh, well. Neither one would be helpful, so I guess it doesn't matter that much.

Luka and I spent a good portion of the day together, and I noticed he wrote a lot in some sort of notebook. It was written in Russian, so I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I assumed it was a diary of some sort. Besides that, nothing really eventful happened for the rest of the day.

"I guess I've completed the assignment," I said to myself as the night announcements were made. I didn't pay any attention to them, since they were pretty much the same old announcements.

The next day, I woke up at my normal time of 7:01. We made no progress at Kotaka's morning meeting, despite the fact that we now had someone who managed to make his way inside the school. As it turns out, Luka had no idea how exactly he got in. He just knew that he was going to be attending this school. Tougo stated that was further evidence that our memories had been erased, but most people still disagreed. Of course, how was it possible for us to just let our memories be erased so easily?

After a delicious, yet uneventful breakfast time, I went back to my room to avoid incurring the wrath of Kotaka. Naturally, all I had in my room with me were my thoughts, so I later decided to find someone to hang out with. Alice and Ko were both in their rooms, but everyone else seemed to be in the second or third buildings. Tougo and Luka were the only ones in the library.

The most suspicious candidate for mastermind speaking to the mysterious new transfer student? I'm not sure I trusted such an occurrence. I rushed to the Research Building and tried to sneak into the library. I seemed to have gone unnoticed as I hid behind a shelf.

**(Author's Note: I know Rin says the conversation is spoken in Russian, but there are a couple of reasons why it's in English. One, I don't know Russian well enough to try to write such a difficult dialogue in it. Two, I absolutely refuse to use an online translator, and although it's the quickest option, I hate them. Three, my guess is most of you don't speak read Russian, so it'd be a bit trollish to have a part of this story in a language that may be harder to understand for most people than, say, Spanish. All the other parts that have been in other languages could be easily explained in context, so I figured a bit of Spanish practice on my part wouldn't hurt. I hope it doesn't turn out too weird for you guys, and sorry for my ramblings here. They'll be done… now).**

_ "So, why have you asked me to come here?" _Luka said in a language I don't understand (more than likely Russian). Luka's tone was different somehow. It sounded more… businesslike.

_"Huh? I didn't ask you to come here. But since you are here, there are a couple of things I'd like to ask you,"_ said Tougo. Of course, he knows how to speak Russian. Fucking Gary Stu.

_"Sure. Go ahead,"_ said Luka.

_ "I've heard you change what your talent is way too many times. After one change, it's easy to tell that you've been lying," _said Tougo. Luka laughed.

_ "Ah, so you're quicker to catch on than some of the other students here. Fine. Every title I've given so far has been a lie. You still don't know what I actually do,"_ said Luka.

_"Honestly, it's not too hard to figure out. In any case, why have you come here?"_ Tougo closed the book he was reading and placed it on the table.

_"Don't worry. I learned about this entire situation from Rin,"_ said Luka. Did I just hear my name? He continued. _"I've heard bits and pieces about what may be going on, but I only recently learned from him or her exactly what's happening."_

_ "So, you can't tell either."_

_ "What Rin is? Nah. But to answer an earlier question, that's not why I'm here. There are a couple of people I need to find."_

_ "Alright. Tell me this. Whose side are you on?"_

_ "According to Hanneko, that's classified information. There's a chance one of us will be killed if I tell you, and I'll try my hardest to make sure it's not me."_

_ "Okay. But don't think you aren't a suspicious character. This is probably dangerous to say, but I think you have some connection to the mastermind."_

_ "Mastermind? If that's some sort of unknown person, my guess is as good as yours. In fact, mine might be better considering how much information I've already managed to collect."_

_ "Hmph. Just remember that it's easy to make the others distrust you."_

_ "Fine, fine. On another note, I'm curious. What do you think Rin is?"_

Tougo's tone changed. To surprise, maybe? _"I don't know, and I'm not too interested in finding out," _he continued to speak in Russian_. "But my guess is that Nakauchi's a boy. I mean, at this stage in life, it seems very unlikely for a girl to be as flat-chested as Nakauchi."_ I'm not sure why, but I felt some sort of offense at those words. I kept hearing my name, so it felt like they were speaking badly of me.

"Haha!" Luka laughed. _"But still. For a boy, Rin has some slightly effeminate facial features."_

_"It's hard for me to tell,"_ Tougo says as he looked at his ElectroID. _"Speaking of the devil, it seems that we have company."_

"Haha," Luka laughed again. "You can come out now, Rin. I know you're hiding in here somewhere." He switched back to a language I can understand, and his tone regained the jovialness it had before. God damn it. Seems like I'm dealing with two clever bastards now.

"Fine. You two working on your plan to cause another murder?" I asked as I walked from behind the shelf.

"Maybe," said Tougo. I fucking hate that guy.

"So, what were you two talking about?" I asked. I knew they'd probably lie, but I'm curious to see what kind of answer I'll get.

"Not telling," said Tougo.

"We were just talking about how cute you are," said Luka. I felt the blood rush to my face.

"Are you gay or something?" I said, only slightly ignoring the fact that he was lying to me.

"That depends. Are you a boy or girl?" Luka asked.

"I-I'm not answering that," I stuttered.

"Hehe, I expected that kind of response. Well, I'm off to my room. Later, friends~" With that, Luka parted, leaving Tougo and I alone in the library.

"If it makes you feel any better," said Tougo. "I don't think you're cute."

"Shut it," I said. Soon afterward, Nezumi arrived.

"Hi, Rin-chan," said Nezumi. "Have you seen Ru-kun?"

"Ru-kun?" I asked.

"If you're referring to the transfer student, he just left the library," said Tougo.

"Oh," she said. "I wanted to talk to him."

"About what?" I asked.

"Well, about anything. It seems kinda unfair that we're isolating him when he's kinda in the same situation as us, and I really believe he doesn't know exactly how he ended up here, if Tougo-kun's memory theory is correct. Plus, we have something in common, so we can talk about that," she explained.

"Really? What would that be?" I asked.

"We're both of Russian descent! Except I'm probably less so than he is," she said. Huh. I didn't know that.

"That's interesting. It seems like a lot of people that came here are mixed or non-Japanese," I said.

"I'm not sure how that's interesting, but at least it's giving you people something to talk about," said Tougo sarcastically. Nezumi and I decided to leave after that. As usual, it was a pretty uneventful day beyond that one point.

_At least no one was killed,_ I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep.


	12. Chapter Three: It's Been a Long Time

It's been about a week since Luka arrived. Most of the students seemed to have warmed up to him in that time as well. The only student who's voiced her obvious dislike of Luka is Alice, but she's been warming up to Ko a lot more, so I think she's fine (besides, better him than me). Neko, Jay, and Irina still hang out like long lost sisters; Kotaka still argues with Yasushi and reprimands Bunpei for, well, being Bunpei; Tougo still spends most of his time in the library; and Nezumi, Tobiki, and I seem to have become closer as friends. In any case, it seems we've learned to coexist here until someone tries to rescue us. Honestly, it's not that bad here when no one tries to kill someone. I was glad that our peace had gone undisturbed.

But of course, this kind of situation doesn't call for peace.

Around the time lunch ended, I noticed that Alice and Bunpei were still in the cafeteria. I overheard some of their conversation.

"Yo, Ari-chan, is everything okay?" Bunpei asked.

"Hmph. Don't call me Ari-chan like you're so familiar with me. If you want me to respond back to you, call me Alice-san or something better than that," she responded.

"Alright then… Alice-san, is everything okay? Whenever you're not with Ko-chan, it seems like you're in your room. You're not getting sick or anything, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I'm fine, so don't worry about me," said Alice with a smile. Bunpei smiled back.

"Well, that's great," said Bunpei. As he was getting ready to leave, Bunpei called out to her again.

"Wait, Alice-san," he said. "Thanks for looking out for Ko-chan! I'm glad you both have become friends."

"As am I," said Alice as she left the cafeteria. Later that day, I decided to hang out with Yasushi during one of the rare moments when he was not with Kotaka. We spent free time together, but nothing he told me about himself was nearly as substantial as one of the last things he said to me.

"Hey, Nakauchi-san," said Yasushi, looking at his ElectroID. "I can't seem to find Yamamoto-san's name anywhere…"

What? That can't be possible. "Check all three available buildings," I said to him.

"I did, but they're not showing her name anywhere," he said. Oh, no. I could feel the panic spreading across my body as he said those words.

"Come with me," I said to Yasushi. We left the minor library in the main building and ran straight towards the dorms.

"Nakauchi-san, you don't think—" began Yasushi, but I interrupted him.

"Only certain people have their names missing from the map. We need to get there quick!"

We ran past Alice, Nezumi, and Bunpei in the hallway. They all looked at us as if we were crazy.

"Hey, Rin-chan, what's going on?" Nezumi asked.

"It's Yamamoto-san! We can't find her name on the maps," I yelled back to her. We were almost to the dorms when I realized that those three were following behind us. Yasushi made it to the door first, then tried turning the knob.

"It's locked," he said. God damn it.

"Does anyone know how to pick a lock?" I asked quasi-jokingly.

"I think I can help," said Nezumi. She pulled a bobby pin out of her pocket and opened the door in an almost-stereotypical fashion. I can't believe that even worked.

Nezumi hesitantly turned the knob and opened the door. I had hoped severely that my suspicions were wrong, and that Ko had just somehow turned off the ElectroID. Naturally, I'd be wrong if I believed in such a miracle. Lying scarred and covered in bleeding cuts was Ko Yamamoto, the Super High School Level Makeup Artist.

"It's nyabout freaking time, you bastards! It's been so long since I made one of these, most of you probably forgot about them. Anyway, this is a Corpse Discovery Announcement! That's right! One of you poor bastards kicked it, and one of you sick bastards killed it. Investigation should start as soon as this announcement is over, and a while later we'll have a trial. Be sure to make the most of this time, and read the freaking crime reports I make for ya! Those take time. Good luck, nya~"

Hanneko's announcement. Then that means…

"She… She's really dead?" Bunpei asked. All I could do was nod. Bunpei punched a wall in anger.

"Ngaaaah! I can't believe I let this happen!" Bunpei yelled, clearly blaming himself for the death of Ko. Nezumi tried to console him.

"It's not your fault," said Nezumi, fighting back tears. "The only person at fault here is… the murderer." After saying "murderer," she had started crying. The others arrived soon. I counted twelve people.

"Yamamoto, huh? That's unfortunate," said Tougo.

"Is…"

Huh? I looked in the direction from which the voice came. Alice was looking downward.

"Is this what you wanted?! You stupid fucking cat! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!" Alice yelled.

"Nya, what did I do?" Neko asked. Alice glared at her angrily.

"Not you, dipshit! I'm talking about that sadistic robot and the worthless filth controlling it! I hope they're really fucking happy this time, I see the point they're trying to make. They don't want me to be happy at all, do they?! Oh, Alice Darlington's making friends? Better fucking make sure we get rid of all of them and destroy every ounce of happiness she has!" Alice's face was practically pink with anger, and I could see her makeup running down her face. She ran away down the hall.

"She's in her room," said Bunpei as he checked his ElectroID. "That was pretty quick."

"Well, better stop wasting time. Who's going to stand watch?" Kotaka asked this. She looked composed, but I could hear her voice shaking.

"Let me do it, Kotaka-sama," said Bunpei. "I'll make sure no one interferes with the scene."

"Alright. Who else? We need one more person," said Kotaka.

"If it's okay with you guys, I'd like to help," volunteered Luka. Kotaka seemed leery of this.

"Fine. Make sure no one interferes with anything here," said Kotaka. It looked like she talked more to Bunpei than Luka. She then left.

"So…" said Nezumi. "Let's get to work."

"Okay," I said. The two of us (as well as Tougo) examined Ko's room for a while before one of us stumbled upon something. At this point, the only people in the room were us, Bunpei, and Luka.

"Hey," said Nezumi, looking at Ko's bed. "There's a folded-up note here." She picked up the note and opened it. I looked at it over her shoulder. I couldn't understand a single thing on it.

"Wow," I said. "Whoever wrote this note has some crappy-ass handwriting."

Nezumi laughed. "Haha! Rin-chan, this is written in Russian," she said. Luka turned to look at us, and everyone in the room looked back at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I wrote this," said Luka. Tougo pushed up his glasses.

"Oh, really?" He asked suspiciously.

"Uh… Wait just a minute! I've never been in this room before now," said Luka. "In fact, this note is out of my…"

Bunpei grabbed the collar of Luka's shirt. "Listen here, man! We don't have time to fuck around here! If you weren't in this room before, then how did that piece of paper get here?"

"Because… I have no idea," said Luka. I'm sorry to say it, but it looks like we have our prime suspect. That was fast.

Bunpei let go of Luka. "You better not be lying," he said.

"I'm not," said Luka.

While this little exchange took place, I decided to read the Monokuma File and examine the body more closely.

_The victim in this case is Ko Yamamoto, the Super High School Level Makeup Artist. Approximate time of death is 5:00 p.m._ (That was about twenty minutes before the announcement went off). _The victim was found lying on her bed, and the victim appears to have several lacerations and stab wounds on her thighs, stomach, and one deep cut on her right hand. Sound familiar, readers?_

I'm not sure exactly how that's supposed to sound familiar, but it sounded more horrible than anything. This death was obviously torturous. I can't believe there's anyone here that could have it out for Ko. She was sweet, kind, and trusting. And some asshole betrayed that trust. I found myself becoming angry, but I tried to hide those feelings. I placed my ElectroID back in one of my pants pockets, and Nezumi walked next to me.

"This room is pretty messy," said Nezumi. "I didn't expect Ko-chan to be like that."

"Neither did I," I said. "Have you noticed anything else?"

"Well, she's dressed kinda oddly. She normally wore t-shirts and pants or a long skirt, but now she's wearing a tank top and shorts," said Nezumi. She's right. She normally dresses more conservatively, but here she's showing more skin than usual. Her shirt's even been raised partially. I found myself hating the person who did this even more, for some reason.

"You're right. She probably wasn't expecting to go out if she was dressed like that," I said. "Anything else seem odd here to you?"

"So, you mean you don't see the glaring piece of evidence right in front of you?" Tougo called this to us from the door. "Look under her hand."

Huh? I looked underneath her left hand, which was somehow completely clean. He was right. There was a knife from the kitchen underneath it. It, too, was completely clean.

"This is from the kitchen," said Nezumi. "You don't think…"

"What?" I asked. "You don't think Yamamoto-san did this all to herself, do you?"

"Hm… Probably not. But why is the knife here? And how is it completely clean?"

"That could only mean that this death was murder, not suicide," I said. But why would the murderer clean the knife only to leave it there? Was he taunting us?

Nezumi went over to the other side of the bed. "Hey, there was something knocked over here," she said. She then picked up a plate that appeared to have what remains of some sort of noodle dish on it. Bunpei looked at the plate.

"Hey," he said. "I saw that in the kitchen."

"Furuda, why were you in the kitchen?" Tougo asked.

"Uh… Well, I got hungry about thirty minutes ago, so I went to the kitchen and saw something being cooked. I wasn't plannin' on killing anyone, so I figured there'd be no harm done, heh…" Bunpei said.

"Bun-kun! Why didn't you realize that was a bad idea?" Nezumi asked.

"Well…" he began. "Ko-chan was in the kitchen as well. She went back here after she got some food, though."

"Oh, really?" Tougo asked. "Fine. I'll assume you're not lying for now. I'm going to investigate elsewhere. But first… Nakauchi. Come with me outside for a moment."

"Huh? What do you want, Glasses?" I asked. He looked irritated.

"Just come here," he said. I decided to just comply. Luka, Bunpei, and Nezumi were still in Ko's room, so I could yell if there was any trouble.

"So, what do you—"

Before I could finish my question, Tougo hugged me. He pulled me closer to him in what could be confused for a caring embrace. It took a while for me to realize exactly what was happening.

_Tougo was hugging me. WHY THE HELL WAS I NOT FIGHTING BACK?!_

"Stay safe, kid," he whispered to me, then left. What… What just happened? I couldn't find my voice, for some reason. _That asshole just freaking hugged me. _

Wait… What if he's trying to mess with my head so I can't investigate properly? But why would that be messing with my head?!

"GAAAH!" I yelled. Luka came out to see if there was a problem, but went back in the room after he realized nothing was wrong.

Right. I need to go back in that room, too.

"Rin-chan, what did Tougo-kun wanna talk about?" Nezumi asked. Right. Nezumi didn't see what happened.

"Uh… I'd rather not talk about it," I said. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Right now, we need to continue investigating."

"Okay! But Rin-chan, first I want you to look around," said Nezumi. I looked around, not seeing what the point was.

"… Okay?" I said.

"Without a doubt, this was a violent murder," said Nezumi. "But despite the mess, there's no real sign of a struggle at all. It's just the knocked-over plate and the makeup trays and paints everywhere. Doesn't that seem odd?"

After doing another quick scan of the room, I realized that she was right. All that was laying around was stuff Ko would have. In fact, the only place where I saw blood was on Ko…

"You're right," I said. "That is odd…"

"Also, while you and Tougo-kun were outside, I found one more thing," said Nezumi. She then directed my attention to a piece of paper with writing on it. It said "Yamamoto Seven."

"What the hell does 'Yamamoto Seven' mean?" I asked.

"Heh. I was gonna ask you the same thing," said Nezumi. "You think it might be a clue?"

"Really, anything here is a clue," I said. "Furuda-kun."

"Yes," he replied.

"You said you found cooked food in the kitchen, right?" I asked.

"Y-yes," he said nervously. "I ate some of it, but it tasted disgusting. Not at all like how Ko-chan normally cooked. But… I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I didn't say anything about it."

"So," said Nezumi to me. "You think we should head to the kitchen?"

"That's where I'm going with this," I said. I asked Luka and Bunpei to tell me who all came by to investigate after we left, then walked out to the hallway with Nezumi.

"It's pretty sad, isn't it?" Nezumi said to me.

"Yeah, it is," I said. "I noticed you crying earlier…"

Nezumi looked embarrassed. "Aah! I'm sorry you had to see that, Rin-chan."

"Don't apologize. But it seems like you've gotten upset at every death so far," I said.

"Well, of course I'd be upset! Our friends are being killed."

"I understand. I'm upset as well," I began. "But please… Please try not to cry anymore, even if this happens again. I… don't like seeing you so upset. It doesn't suit you at all," I tried to say sincerely.

Nezumi looked at me and blushed. I guess the sincerity thing worked. "Okay, Rin-chan! I'll try not to cry anymore," she said with a slight smile. I'm not entirely certain, but it looked forced. We continued walking towards the cafeteria when I noticed Jay walking towards the dorms.

"Hey! I didn' know you were here," said Jay to me.

"Yeah. We're on our way to the kitchen now," said Nezumi. Jay looked at her in confusion.

"Ya sure 'bout that? According to my ElectroID, Rin here's already in the kitchen," said Jay. Huh? Do the ElectroIDs predict our movements?

"Huh?" Nezumi asked. "Is it making some sort of prediction?"

"I don't think so," said Jay. "It's sayin' that you're here with and me, so maybe the system's messed up."

"That's odd," I said. I went in my pocket to get my ElectroID, but… It's gone!

"I can't find my ID! God damn it," I said.

"Nya ha ha! That's too bad, Nyakauchi!"

Unexpectedly, we heard the voice of Hanneko. The appearance of his form soon caught up. Jay's expression changed to anger, and Nezumi hid behind me.

"Rah! Stupid cat! Where did you even come from?!" Jay asked.

"Sigh, can't you kids go a day without asking me that? I'm almost certain most of you aren't old enough for that story," said Hanneko. "Anyway, loser, don't freak out. You're not gonna be punished for not having your ID right now. Good luck, bastards!" With that, he disappeared. Again.

"Ugh. I hate that thing," said Jay. "Anyway, hope ya find your ID, kid. I'm off! Later, guys!"

Jay then continued on her way to the dorms.

"Huh. I wonder why you didn't get in trouble that time," said Nezumi.

"Yeah. Thanks a bunch," I said sarcastically. Nezumi giggled, apologized, then looked at her ID one more time. At this point, we were walking into the cafeteria.

"Hey, it says that Tougo-kun's also in the kitchen right now," said Nezumi. He is? Then that means…

"That asshole!" I said angrily. I opened the door to the kitchen to find Tougo walking around and investigating the stove.

"You called?" Tougo asked. I glared at him angrily.

"Give me back my ID," I said. He sighed.

"Alright. I've already tested my theory, so I no longer need it. It's on the counter over there," he said. I went to pick it up. Nezumi alternated looking at him and me in confusion.

"Uh… Did I miss something?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. I need to go talk to some people," said Tougo. He then left us alone in the kitchen.

"Uh… Rin-chan—"

"I'd rather not talk about it," I interrupted.

"Okay…" said Nezumi. She went to look for the knife set while I went to the stove. The kitchen looked pretty clean. The only thing out of place seemed to be the food that was cooked on the stove. I examined it closer.

"Ugh. This just smells disgusting," I said as I sniffed the contents of the pot. I noticed a piece of paper on the counter next to the stove. Nezumi must have heard the rustling of the paper.

"Did you find something?" she asked.

"Yeah…" I said, reading the sheet. "It's a recipe. I guess Yamamoto-san was trying out something new."

"That explains why it turned out so bad according to Bun-kun," said Nezumi.

"Yeah…" I noticed another list underneath the recipe. I must have missed it before. Nezumi walked towards me.

"Hey, it's the list of allergies that Yamamoto-san made," said Nezumi. "Wow. Looks like Yasu-kun and Ru-kun are both allergic to peanuts. What a coincidence."

"Do you think that has any relevance to the case?" I asked. She thought for a moment.

"Not really. But speaking of relevance, one of the knives from here is, in fact, missing," she said. Kotaka then stormed into the kitchen.

"You two! Have you solved who the culprit is?" Kotaka asked. Nezumi and I both shook our heads. Kotaka groaned.

"Fine. It's getting closer to trial time, so I had hoped that you two found something out," said Kotaka. Good to know she's not enforcing her rules right now.

"Kotaka, is everything okay?" Nezumi asked this hesitantly. "You seem mad…"

"I am mad," she said. "But not at you two. I'm—"

"Excuse me, can I have your attention please? I'm getting bored of watching you losers walk around trying to find clues and making no progress, so you have fifteen more minutes to investigate. After that time, meet in the gym. Good luck, bastards!"

I hate these kinds of announcements. I hate all of Hanneko's announcements, actually. I just hate Hanneko.

"Um, I think we can spend the rest of the time in here. The gym isn't that far away," said Nezumi.

"Yeah," I said. We combed through the kitchen once more. It looked like there was nothing more to find, but then Nezumi stumbled upon something in the cabinets. From where I was, I couldn't see it.

"Hey, Rin-chan, come here!" Nezumi waved frantically at me in an attempt to catch my attention. Silly girl.

"You already had my attention when you called my name, Mouse girl," I said. "Did you find something?"

"Yes," she said. She opened the cabinet to reveal… Nothing. All I saw were plates and bowls. Kotaka looked inside the cabinet as well.

"I don't see anything useful here, Karafuto," said Kotaka.

"Look behind the plates," said Nezumi. Kotaka asked us to move, then picked up the 14 thick glass plates that were there. She placed them on one of the counters before looking back inside. She gasped and picked something up.

"T-this is—!" Kotaka seemed too shocked to even finish her thought, and with good reason. In her hands was one of the poison containers that was in the labs.

"So, this is all my fault. I knew I should have confiscated and hidden these," said Kotaka. Tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Don't blame yourself," said Nezumi in an effort to console her. I read through the Monokuma File once more.

"Guys," I said. "Keep that poison container a secret."

"Why? Nakauchi, this is a substantial piece of evidence," said Kotaka.

"Yeah, Rin-chan," said Nezumi. "Don't you think we should tell the others?"

"We will," I said. "But I have a theory, and I need you guys to not mention this at all until I do. I think this might be the true cause of death."

Nezumi's face hardened, then she checked her ElectroID. "We should get to the gym. It's been close to fifteen minutes," she said.

"Okay," I said. We didn't speak on the way to the gym. It looks like we were the last to arrive. The first people I went to speak to were Bunpei and Luka.

"Furuda-kun, Luka," I said. "Do you know who else went into Yamamoto-san's room?"

"Uh… After you guys left, the cute American girl and Tougo came by," said Luka. Jeez, this guy is as bad as Bunpei. He calls way too many girls "cute."

"Also, Kotaka-sama and Yasu came by with Tobi," said Bunpei. "I don't know about the others, but when I checked in on Alice-san, she seemed to stay in her room the entire time. She's probably really upset about Ko-chan."

"I know," I said. "We all are."

"Nyalright, is everynyan here?" Hanneko stood by the podium and looked around.

"Looks like it. Step on the logo." With that, Hanneko disappeared back into the curtains, and the logo descended again. I went back over the clues, but only one of them pointed to a possible culprit. While I don't want to believe it, Luka's currently the most suspicious. Even then, the evidence isn't too substantial. Oh, well. We're almost there, and we'll see how this goes.


End file.
